The Trade
by PeliikGrahSol
Summary: Instead of learning the Kage Bunshin technique, Naruto performs a strange technique that brings him before the Gate of Truth. He trades the fox in exchange for knowledge...
1. Chapter 1: The Trade

**A/N**: This is yet another story I got the urge to write on when I passed by nobody102 profile page the other day. The initial idea his idea I wanted to call it out to anyone interested in becoming an author but have no idea what to write I can suggest going to his site he got some Ideas posted there.

Well nothing more to say so hope you enjoy and please R&amp;R

* * *

Chapter One:  
The Trade

'_Ugh... FAIL!_'

'_Um… Iruka-sensei_, _we could let him pass…_'

'_No way, Mizuki-sensei, I can't let him pass._'

"I will show him!" Naruto shouted as he plopped down in a random part in the surrounding forest next to a shack, slightly winded from his sprint. He allowed himself to laugh at Hokage-jiji, knocking out Hokage-jiji should have him pass even if he'd not learn from the scroll. He grinned from ear to ear at the memory.

'Naruto, _I'll tell you a special secret. There's another way to graduate… all you need to do is steal a scroll…_'

Naruto grabbed the scroll from his back and opened it.

'_Learn one skill from the scroll and you pass._'

'_Hehehe, this is going to be so easy!_' Naruto proclaimed in his mind.

"Let's see… Kage Bunshin no jutsu…WHAT THE HELL?! Why does it start with the one I'm bad at?!"

With a frown on his face he roughly rolled the scroll a few lengths and began reading from there.

"Shinri no jutsu…?" Naruto raised an eyebrow at that one but shrugged in the end, it did peak his curiosity so why not?

"let's see… hand seals… ram, dragon, snake, snake, boar, ox, boar, dragon, tiger, snake, monkey, snake, boar, hare-" Naruto carefully activated each seal as the long wall of text continued on, he lost count around fifty but the seals just continued on.

In any other case he would have given up but this was a jutsu and a jutsu that needed this many hand seals must be awesome! So he persevered.

"-ram, Shinri no justsu!"

He exclaimed and promptly collapsed in a heap…

* * *

Naruto found himself standing in a white void; he could see nothing but a faint shadow at his feet.

"Where am I?" he asked, "What is this place? How did I get here?"

"Nowhere, everywhere, nothing and you should know."

Naruto jumped in surprise and whipped around to face the person behind him. What met him was a white face he gave out a small yelp and stumbled and fell over his own feet.

The odd and creepy white being in front of him chuckled.

"w-who are you!?"

The being grinned as invisible lips parted revealing perfect rows of teeth.

"Who am I? One name you might have for me is The World, or you might call me The Universe, or perhaps God, or perhaps the Truth. I am all and I am one, so of course this also means that I am you."

"I… huh? I don't understand." Naruto said rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.

"No matter." the being said, "You are here because to gain you must give. Everything has a price, a toll if you may."

The being stepped aside, revealing a huge stone double-door, a depiction of a ram seal with a stylized flame around it.

"You are free to enter."

Naruto rose from the ground and approached the door. As he passed the self-proclaimed god he did not see the sinister grin.

As Naruto was about to touch the gate he stopped.

"Wait… what price exactly?" he turned looked over his shoulder at God.

Truth dropped the grin, the kid was brighter than he suspected.

"Depends on what you want, equivalent exchange, something of equal or greater value must be given in exchange for something else."

"But I have nothing to give!"

"Yes you do. A hand… an arm… your memories or," Truth smirked, "your captive."

"Ano… what captive?"

"That would be cheating now wouldn't it?"

"Cheating how?"

"Knowledge, it is what you came for and knowledge always comes at a price."

Naruto was dumb struck. He did not want knowledge, he wanted cool jutsu so that he could prove himself strong and become hokage.

"But I don't want it I just want to learn cool and powerful jutsu!" he exclaimed loudly and slightly frustrated.

"Then what harm will it do, to give something you never knew you had to begin with for something you always wanted?" God smiled widely.

Naruto pondered a few moments before finally nodded sagely.

"Sure, sounds fair."

Naruto felt hands grab hold of his clothed.

"Wah-" was all he managed to say before being harshly pulled, lifting him from his feet, "aaaaaaaaaah!"

Naruto was thrown into the black void, the door slowly closing in front of him. He could see the slight silhouette of truth waving at him.

"Goodbye, Uzumaki Naruto." It grinned and looked down at its stomach which was adorned with a new four symbols seal.

* * *

Naruto snapped his eyes open with a huge breath of air. His lungs ached for the precious gas.

Something felt really weird. The cool air bit harder at his skin and he felt utterly exhausted. The feeling was utterly foreign.

'_What did I do!?_'

"Hey!" Naruto looked up at the man towering over him, "I've found you…"

"Hey, Iruka-sensei." Naruto weakly replied.

Iruka's expression turned from anger to worry in a heartbeat.

"Naruto, what's wrong?" he knelt down beside the panting boy.

Glancing to the side he noticed the scroll rolled out on the ground.

"Please Naruto, don't tell me you used the scroll." Iruka begged as he grabbed the boy by the shoulders, when Naruto did not look him in the eye he got really worried, "That scroll is forbidden for a reason Naruto."

"Mizuki-sensei told me that if I managed to take the scroll and learn a jutsu from it, you would let me graduate."

"What did you sa-" Iruka shoved the boy away and received the hail of kunai.

"Nice job in finding him, Iruka-_san_." said from where he crouched in a tree.

"I see what's going on… ugh" Iruka answered and ripped one of the Kunai out.

Mizuki looked towards Naruto without letting Iruka out of his sight.

"Naruto, give me the scroll."

"Hey, hey! What's going on?!" Naruto was confused and looked frantically between his two teachers.

"Naruto! Don't listen to him," Iruka shouted desperately "Don't give him the scroll! That scroll is dangerous, it holds many powerful and forbidden ninjutsu inside!

"Mizuki used you to get his hands on it!"

Just stood there in shock, a man he trusted had betrayed him, used him, and it shook him to the core.

"Naruto… there is no point in you having it, I'll tell you the truth."

It only took Iruka a moment to realize what Mizuki was planning and cursed that his legs got injured; otherwise he would have been able to stop him.

"N-no, don't!" it was a feeble attempt but at least he tried.

Mizuki only chuckled.

"Thirteen years ago… you know about the demon fox being sealed right?" Mizuki smiled at the boy's confused stare, "since that incident... a new rule was created but... naruto. This rule was never meant to be told to you."

"What rule, why?!" Naruto took a step forward, confusion and out right fear showing on his face.

"He he he he he," Mizuki chuckled, "The rule is that nobody is allowed to talk about the fact that you are the demon fox."

"Huh?" Naruto froze as the missing puzzle piece fell into place. Now it all made sense, the stares, the banning, the isolation… but he couldn't be the demon could he? No impossible, sealed objects can't take over or control the hosting body… '_How'd I know that?!_'

'_Wait… what price exactly?_'

'_Depends on what you want…_'

'_But I have nothing to give!_'

'_Yes you do. A hand… an arm… your memories or… __**your captive**__._'

Naruto's eyes widen in realisation as the weird guys words made sense now; He had been the host of the demon fox… but why?

"Watch out!"

Naruto did not know what happened but he felt being tackled to the ground and something warm hit his face.

"Don't listen to him Naruto… I was the same like you. I… I have felt your pain… when my parents died… I-"

"Spare me your sob stories Iruka." Mizuki landed behind the pair next to the scroll. "I got what I wanted."

Mizuki sighed and withdrew a kunai after placing the scroll on his back.

"To bad I got to kill you now, can't have witnesses now can we?"

Iruka turned to the still prone Naruto and whispered.

"Run."

Naruto just stared before leaping to his feet and ran away.

"Hah, see Iruka. The little demon doesn't care about you, no one in fact. He would have been better off dead."

Iruka removed the giant shuriken from his back with a guttural grunt; he'd been lucky that it missed his spine and lodged itself between his ribs. His flak jacket had done its job and stopped the sharp object from doing more harm than it had otherwise done.

Iruka stumbled to his feet cursing that it would take months for the new jacket to become worn in enough to be comfortable.

"Shut up Mizuki, you're a dead man walking, no matter the outcome."

"Ain't we all?" Mizuki shrugged.

Iruka whipped out a kunai and used the distraction to pop a soldier pill in his mouth and throwing himself into the fight.

* * *

Naruto ran with all the power his legs would give him, for each step he understood the gravity of what he had done.

He had screwed up many times in his short life but this was probably the biggest to date; he had given up the Kyuubi.

It was weird how much he suddenly knew and understood the difference with such clarity it astounded him.

He had been a jinchuriki another fact that shocked him was how that the kyuubi's removal had not killed him.

He berated himself for not seeing the signs, understanding the hints… No he had to hurry, Hokage-jiji would understand, he would be able to fix things.

He hoped that Iruka would not die before he got help.

* * *

Sarutobi Hiruzen sighed at the recent development. The search had already been called off and a small ANBU team sent to take care of Mizuki. Iruka was beaten and bruised but would be up on his feet in a few hours.

No the source of his worry was Naruto. He had not been able to find him using his crystal ball, a fact that confused him greatly. It was fool proof as no one could change their chakra signature, yet Naruto had. It was subtle but still there.

He removed his pipe and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

Naruto had used one of the forbidden techniques, he was sure of it, how else would or rather could he reasonably explain the changes.

Naruto had almost gone through the roof when he'd told the boy he was allowed to redo the exam as payment for his troubles.

Hiruzen smiled. Naruto always managed to bring a laugh to his lips.

'_Better turn in for the night… I am not getting any younger…_'

The creak his office chair made eerily sounded like how his own joints felt.

* * *

It was a happy Naruto who arrived alone that Saturday morning for his well-deserved second chance.

It did not help that this was his fourth try; it was embarrassing when his same-age class all passed and he alone went home with his googles instead of a shiny forehead protector.

It had almost become routine. He arrived to barely pass the written exam. Go outside and run around the training field for half an hour, throw kunai and shuriken and then spar with one random student, passing with and above average score. Then came the last part, the bane of his existence, the bunshin no jutsu.

He sighed and wished for a miracle that he was able to do one bunshin good enough to pass.

Iruka greeted him, looking only slightly better than a mummy, when he entered his classroom.

"Good to see you alright Naruto, sit down and I will start the countdown. You've got one hour."

Naruto wasted no time in going through the test and was done well before the time was done. He passed the physical test without much problem like last time.

"Good job Naruto!" Iruka grinned at the boy but felt sorry for him; he would probably not make it unless a miracle happened.

Iruka eased himself carefully into his seat and placed the Naruto's test file a little of to the side. He extracted the proper blank form and nodded towards Naruto who shifted uneasily.

"Alright I know you can do this already but for the sake of being proper, transform into me."

Naruto did as instructed with a loud affirmative and transformed into a perfect copy, '_No surprise there._'

Iruka scribbled down a few comments and instructed to do a kawarimi with a prepared log in the back of the large room.

Naruto went through the seals in an adequate time and soon afterwards exploded in a cloud of smoke leaving only a similar sized log in his wake.

Iruka nodded in approval and Naruto smiled despite having successfully done it multiple times before.

"Now Naruto… do a bunshin." This was it the last and possibly his only real hurdle to pass.

Naruto swallowed hard and went through the hand seals one by one carefully.

Iruka looked on in suspense as Naruto formed the ram seal and noticed something he had not done the other times. Naruto's hand seals were picture perfect, Iruka could not see anything that could have improved the seal in the least. He quickly started to scribble a note to take to the Hokage.

When Iruka looked up again Naruto had just finished the snake seal and went for a perfectly executed tiger seal.

Naruto was in complete concentration and his hands seemed to move on their own, forming seal after seal in with so small pulses of chakra he was afraid he put in too little. He never thought it possible to use so little but it felt right… was supposed to be that small?

As he finished the tiger seal he felt a sudden burst of excitement and shut his eyes and shouted.

"Bunshin no jutsu!"

Naruto was enveloped in a explosion of smoke that soon dissipated. Naruto did not dare to look.

Iruka was shocked to say the least. There stood not one Naruto but two. Naruto had done it…

Iruka shook his head and picked up his jaw from his desk. On a closer inspection the clone was not a perfect imitation, it looked slightly pale and the colour was not entirely the same but it was a standing clone and a useful one… at least for a start… and against genin in the heat of a battle or in the dark…

He grinned at had the urge to laugh as Naruto still had his eyes screwed down shut. Iruka did the only thing he could think of and started to slowly clap.

"Good job Naruto, you pass."

As Naruto heard the word he opened his eyes in surprise looking at the clapping Iruka. He slowly looked to his side. His eyes watered and he felt unbridled happiness as a mountain of endorphins' flushed through his body. In one big bound he leapt up into the air, fists pumping the air.

"YATTA! Do you see, do you see Iruka-sensei, I did it!" He started to jump around.

In an attempt to hug his creation he fell flat, face first into the ground when it promptly disappeared but rebounded and threw himself at Iruka and started to bawl 'I did it!' in almost unrecognized sobs.

Iruka chuckled at Naruto's behaviour and patted his head. The young teens grip hurt, like hell, but he did not want to ruin his moment of rare happiness.

"Say Naruto, let's go eat ramen, my treat."

Naruto was almost out the classroom before he finished the sentence.

"Hey, don't forget this!"

"Huh?" Naruto turned around barely managing to catch the hitai-ate.

Naruto dried his runny nose and took off his googles and put on his new headgear.

"Now you look like a proper shinobi." Iruka smiled who was met with Naruto's own beaming smile.


	2. Chapter 2: Team Up

**A/N: **Well here ya have the next chapter so gore yourselves on its glory.

It is actually a small surprise for me as this story earned the same amount of views(and visitors),faves and follows, if not more than what my other fics have managed to do in two whole months.

R&amp;R

* * *

Chapter Two:  
Team Up

Naruto groggily woke to his alarm clock which he silenced with a heavy palm. He snuggled into his pillow not wanting to leave the warm bed sheets… but alas he had no choice; today was Monday and as such meant it was the day he would get assigned to a team.

Iruka had been very clear about him not being late. As if he would be late to his first 'real' day as a ninja.

His feet smacked loudly against the floorboards as he wobbled sluggishly into his small bathroom too emptied his bladder.

After washing his hands he went on to make a small and humble breakfast; a slice of bread and a fine glass of milk to grow tall and strong, at least… that was what Iruka had told him. He hated that he was short for his age… only good point was that Sasuke-teme was shorter… though it was hollow as Naruto was both older and it was only two millimetres difference.

After he finished eating he quickly got dressed and was just about finished putting on his googles when he remembered the Hitai-ate, he quickly weighted his options and decided to switch and bound out the door with skipping steps.

The glares and wide berth he got from the village folks did not bother him at all, at least today; it was far too happy an occasion to let something so small down his mood.

Humming on a new melody of his, one of the few methods he developed to keep himself occupied when he was alone.

Half the class had already arrived when he entered the classroom. He earned a few curious looks as they wondered what he was doing here, but quickly went back to their own business and he placed himself on the first empty seat he found.

"Oi, Naruto what are you doing here?"

Naruto turned around and was greeted by Kiba who rested his head on his hands.

"I thought you failed the exam." he continued.

"What, you can't see my new head protector?" Naruto retaliated and readjusted his Hitai-ate to make sure it was on the right way.

"Yeah… but still, how did you get it?"

"By beating the exam of course, are you stupid?"

"What did you just say to me, huh?!" Kiba rose up slamming his hands down on the desk, leaning in close as he glared at Naruto.

"What you deaf too, Dog-breath?" Naruto met Kiba halfway both trying to stare the other down.

Kiba barred his teeth and growled menacingly with little Akamaru doing a less menacing imitation from on top his head. Naruto returned the glares with his own not giving an inch.

"Naruto move out of the way!"

"Huh?" Naruto broke eye contact with Kiba as he heard the familiar voice beside him. Kiba whooped in victory which ticked him off.

Standing with her hand balled into fists and placed on her hips with a small frown on her face. Oh Naruto loved that cute expression of hers and promptly forgot what she had said as he took his time adoring her looks.

This of course ticked her off and she shoved him out of his seat. It took him by surprised and he met the floor with an 'oomph'.

"Hey! What's the big idea!?" he shouted indignantly from the floor and he glared up at her.

She just looked down on him but dismissed him with a flick of her hair.

"You did not move out of the way stupid."

Naruto grumbled a few choice words and found another seat and he glared at Sakura who was now sidling up to Sasuke. Naruto groaned, '_Of course it was that bastard_,_ it always is._', and he laid down his head on his desk.

He heard Kiba and a few other graduates who had watched the little event snicker at him.

This year's classmates were the worst of the three. Thanks to Jiji he was able to enrol one year before most, at the age of six. Most others enrolled when they were seven. He did not remember much of his first group of classmates except that they had been the kindest, actually letting him participate in games and he was not as ridiculed for his bad marks… everyone sort of expected it anyway.

Then he failed the exam and was placed with the next year's batch of students. Then he started to actually be exiled. He was branded a failure by the 'Rookie of the year' and everyone sort of went with it. Of course not everyone was bad to him. There were two kids who liked to actually talk to him and participated in one or two of his pranks. He smiled as he remembered them, they actually nicked named each other and they formed an unofficial little group.

He remembered Bushy-brows, a single-minded boy unable to perform jutsu; it was sort of what attracted them to each other. Then there was the cute little Bun-Bun, a short little girl that always tied her hair up into two buns. They had hoped to get on the same team but then again he failed the exam.

Naruto sighed. His happy mood had completely vanished as he remembered the last time they actually spent time together… it was the time they had said goodbye at the academy gates and went their separate ways. He hoped he had not been the only one to shed tears that day.

His thoughts were interrupted when the classroom door opened and Iruka walked in. The graduating class, except Naruto, was shocked at his appearance and pronounced limp.

"Good morning class!" Iruka beamed and checked his clip board to confirm everyone was present, it was sad that some parents pulled their children out of the ninja program in the last second like this. Though it worked out for the better as were there were twenty-nine graduates now it was twenty-seven. He cleared his throat before he continued the well-practiced speech he had designed and used for several years now.

"Beginning today you are all ninja." He began though he noticed some of the graduates immediately tuned him out, he mentally sighed but continued without pause, "But you are still merely genin. The hard part has just started."

He droned on explaining how each and everyone would be divided into nine three man teams each headed by their own jounin-sensei. He further explained the importance of listening to their assigned sensei and do a good job in the name of Konoha.

Naruto silently wished to be placed with Sakura but absolutely not with Sasuke he was even worse than that 'fate guy' from before.

"-and team seven will be Haruno Sakure, Uzumaki Naruto," '_Yes!_' Naruto punched the air in triumph. Sakura had, at the words, smashed her head into her desk with a groan. "- and Uchiha Sasuke. Team eight-"

This time it was Naruto who face-planted his own desk and Sakura to cheer. If one listened carefully one could have heard a slight 'tch' coming from the direction of one Uchiha Sasuke. No one did though as the majority of the girls groaned as most of them had hoped to be paired with him.

Naruto cursed his luck. Was he doomed to always have bad luck? Now he had to contend in a losing battle with Sasuke over Sakuras love… he sighed in defeat. Sasuke did not even need to do anything to attract girls; he was like a flytrap in that regard… he he he, imagining the girls like ugly flies swarming around a pile of poo did help elevate his mood out of the gutter and grinned.

Iruka continued calling out teams, skipping the ninth saying something about it still being in 'circulation' or something in that regard, and ended on ten.

"We will introduce your assigned jounin-sensei this afternoon. So take a beak until then." Iruka finished and limped out of the room.

As soon as Iruka left the whole room erupted in conversation. Everyone wanted to know why Iruka was injured. 'What happened to Iruka-sensei?' was the most asked question. Of course Naruto knew why but he stayed silent, he knew no one would believe him and taunt him, call him liar and then go back to ignoring him.

Naruto sighed and quietly left the academy.

* * *

Naruto munched on a slightly old but perfectly edible piece of bean jam bread. The old lady at the close by bakery gave him a discount on expired bread. She wasn't terribly nice to him but she had reluctantly agreed after a few month of pestering and whining saying that at least the bread did not go totally to waste.

He sighed.

Now he understood why people did their best to keep him away. They thought he was dangerous, plain and simple and thanks to that others went with the flow. The kids his age simply thought he was useless and a nuisance and the grownups were afraid of the power that he 'had' stored within him.

The demon fox… a malevolent beast of pure chakra was gone or rather not here anymore. He had traded it for knowledge… for jutsu… but he did not know any new jutsu. Had God lied to him? He had said he wanted to learn powerful and awesome jutsu and he had traded the fox in exchange. What had God said… equivalent exchange… and act of equal trade, give a ryo and receive in return something of the same value? That was it, wasn't it?

But it did not feel like he had gained anything… wait!

He sat up straight and almost dropped his half-eaten lunch, catching it in the last second. Now he remembered… he had never managed to successfully create a clone, never… until two days ago… He hadn't even practiced anything and he had still successfully made one.

Stuffing the rest of the bread in his mouth he stood up and went through the hand seals for the clone technique and with a small, very small, burst of chakra and a clone separated from him. Naruto stared at his clone in surprise. He had not even done any real effort into it at all. Before he had barely managed to create a clone even resembling himself and that had needed almost all the concentration he had.

He quickly performed a kawarimi with the first unbolted object he found. He disappeared and the Orange-red roof tile took his place. That was even more surprising as the Kawarimi was amongst the hardest E-class jutsu that the academy taught. It was not hard to perform if you had the correct tool for the job, a log with a helping sealing tag for ease of use, as it was harder and more chakra intensive the more the objects size and weight differed from the user. Naruto had tried before and only managed to replace himself with another kid his own age by mistake when the target had been a larger rock, and even that had taken so much chakra that he lost consciousness.

This new ability was incredible for Naruto and immediately broke out into a small victory dance. The tile, which he forgot the moment its use was up, smashed into the ground three floors down with a resounding crash of breaking clay.

"What in the… who threw that!" an angry voice from down the street shouted, "when I get a hold of you kids, I will personally break you like the little shits you are!"

Naruto paled and scrammed as a ladder made contact with the roofs gutter. The last thing he heard before diving out of earshot was:

"I will get you, you little bastard, I swear!"

* * *

Naruto was bored out of his mind as the minutes ticked by. The last team except his had left with their sensei an hour ago, leaving him alone with the silent and brooding Uchiha and a fawning Sakura who was staring dreamily at the boy. Naruto laid silently on the desk one row above them, trying his hardest to ignore them. His muscles still ached from his none stop sprint away from the 'scary man'. Another change he clearly noted, he'd never felt like this… at least for this long before. It usually took only a few minutes for him to feel fine again. Another thing he guessed was thanks to the fox that was no longer with him. He almost regretted trading it away… emphasis on 'almost'.

The door finally opened after a few more minutes and in walked a their slumped over, half-mask wearing and silver spiked-haired jounin… at least Naruto hoped he was 'theirs' and a 'jounin', otherwise he would flip-out.

"Yo… meet me on the roof." Their apparent jounin-sensei said and promptly vanished in a puff of smoke.

Naruto shared a brief look with his to teammates before jumping to his feet to jog up to the roof.

* * *

The spike-haired jounin sat perched on the roof railing studying them when they emerged from the door.

"Sit." The man said and gestured with a hand to a set of steps in front of him.

Naruto sat down followed by Sasuke and last Sakura; all three of them looked at their sensei curiously.

"Let us start with introductions." Their sensei said but remained silently staring at them with a half lidded eye. Huh, Naruto never noticed that when the man had come for them…

No one said anything and continued to stare awkwardly at each other. Sakura had enough and opened her mouth to ask.

"Ano… what do you want to know?" she fidgeted when their teacher focused solely on her.

"Your names," he rubbed his masked chin as if thinking of what to say, "your likes… dislikes… dreams, that kind of stuff."

"Um… sensei, why don't you start, to show us how it's done?" Sakura asked.

"hm? Alright I guess that is fair." he nodded, "Let's see. My name is Hatake Kakashi, but call me Kakashi-sensei or just sensei. My likes and dislikes? Is none of your business and my dreams… secret."

Naruto deadpanned, all he told them was his name… well two could play this game.

"Now is your turn pinkie-top." Kakashi pointed at Sakura who was take off guard.

"Why me?" she asked as she shifted uncomfortable.

"Because I said so, go on." came the blunt reply.

"My name is Haruno Sakura," she sighed "My likes," she looked towards Sasuke who Kept his focus on Kakashi. The twitch in Sasuke's right eye did not go unnoticed though. "my dreams," she yet again looked at Sasuke, "and my dislikes?" she seemed to actually ponder the question before delivering the heart-breaking word, "Naruto."

Naruto sighed and hanged his head in defeat.

Kakashi could only nervously eye-smiled. He could already tell they were going to fail his test. It was sad really, he had actually looked forward to teach Naruto and to some extent Sasuke. It was sad it was the girl who would ultimately drag them down.

"Uh hu, thanks Sakura," he turned to the boy in the middle, "now your turn Fan boy."

Sasuke's eye twitched at the nickname.

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke, I don't have many things I like and many things I dislike. My dreams? To kill a certain man."

Sasuke delivered his words in the standard low monotone voice he usually had. Naruto could only roll his eyes in silent response at the boy. He could not understand how someone that was an introvert like Sasuke was so alluring to the girls in his class, hell not even mister Fate was so melodramatic.

"And what about you orange-guy?" Kakashi turned towards Naruto with a questioning brow raise.

Naruto grinned and just when he opened his mouth he heard Sakura say under her breath 'here he goes again.' which made his grin larger. Oh she was in for a surprise.

"Names Uzumaki Naruto, dattebayo!"

Everyone stared at him, expecting more, but when it never came Kakashi raised an eyebrow. He shrugged at the grinning boy who seemed almost to taunt him.

"Right… well, nice meeting you all, Sakura," he nodded towards Sakura" Sasuke and mister Sunshine"

Naruto's smile dropped into a frown at not even being named properly.

"I want you to meet up in training ground seven for your test seven pee-em an-"

"What, another test!?" Naruto and Sakura exclaimed in surprise.

"But of course, tomorrow begins your true genin test."

"But we are already genin, see!" Naruto pointed at his forehead or more precisely his Hitai-ate.

"No. The academy is only there to weed out anyone who's not genin material and if you fail it is right back into the academy. And as I tried to say I would recommend you to not eat any breakfast or you might puke. Ja-ne."

Before anyone was able to say anything more Kakashi disappeared in a puff of smoke. Naruto sat dumbfounded on his improvised seat. Unlike the others, it was not the surprise test they all suddenly got dumped on them that had him shocked. Kakashi had not disappeared like the other time, when he got them from the classroom. No, this was much simpler in nature Kakashi had not simply disappeared but launched himself away at tremendous speed.

Naruto did not know how he knew, all he did see was Kakashi going up in smoke. He did not see any hand seals or any other sign of what he'd done to achieve such high speed. He only had this nagging feeling it was some kind of jutsu… he had to learn it… it was so awesome!


	3. Chapter 3: The Test

**A/N**: Don't know much of what to say except thanks for the reviews reviewers.

Here's a new chapter.

**Wanted**

Any one who has or know of a picture that would fit the story,  
please don't hesitate to PM me.

That is all.

* * *

Chapter three:  
The Test

Naruto yawned deeply when he finally managed to find Training ground seven. He was immediately confronted by Sakura, a frown on her face and hands firmly placed on her hips.

"You are late, Baka!" she berated.

Naruto put his hands up in defence trying to placate the hot-headed girl.

"I'm not that late am I?" he said in a weak attempt, "…by the way where is Kakashi-sensei?"

She huffed and turned away, "He is also late." she grumbled.

Naruto smiled at that.

"Then no harm done, ne?"

Sakura in responded by decked him over the head with fist "Baka!"

Naruto wisely shut up after that, no point getting more hurt than necessary. He went up to the tree his little team seemed to have claimed as theirs and plopped down against it, sending a small 'hello' to Sasuke who responded with an 'hn', as per usual.

Naruto let out another yawn. He was dead tired after not finding enough sleep yesterday night. His excitement over today and the prospect of learning more jutsu was overwhelming. He had observed more ninja using that mysterious rapid-movement-thingy-mayig technique and was determined to learn it. Kakashi-sensei was going to do it, willingly or otherwise. It was a promise he made to himself before finally managing to get some shut-eye.

As the number of minutes he waited grew by the dozen, his eyes started to droop dangerously low, he found himself drifting into sleep.

* * *

"_Huff… huff, come on Whiskers, was that really necessary?" asked the girl next to him as she tried to regain her breath._

"_Heh he, of course Bun-Bun-chan!" Naruto exclaimed, his grin threatened to split his face in two._

"_Yo-osh, Naruto-san that was fun!" came the voice of the boy on his other side, he barely affected by the dead-sprint they had performed to avoid the colourful mob that had been their latest target. Naruto himself never understood what made people so angry when he used his array of paint-bombs to repaint the markets under rush-hour. He chalked it up as poor humour._

"_Naruto… next time, warn us… please" Bun-bun said and nudged the side of his head with a small smile._

"_See, see. You also found it funny! I'm the greatest, admit it!" Naruto made a great show of flexing his skinny arms trying to look impressive._

"_Bah, dream on."_

_Bushy-brows went in and circled his arms around his two classmates into a bear-hug and started to spin around the small clearing they managed to hide in, showing off a budding but still quite impressive bout of strength. The Boy was still high on endorphins after his adrenaline-rush from the chase only moments before._

_Naruto and Bun-bun desperately fought the iron grip Bushy-brows practiced on them, which led him to lose his balance. They crash landed in a tangle of limbs._

_After a moment of getting untangled they fell back laughing._

"_Baaaa!" Naruto opened his eyes and met the one of a horned ram._

"_Huh?" was all he managed to say as it reared up and slammed its head into his own…_

* * *

"Wake up Baka!"

Naruto held his head in pain as it throbbed from Sakura's punch.

"What is the big idea?!" he screamed from the ground.

She just shrugged like it did not matter, "You did not wake up the first time, idiot."

Still holding his head he grumbled and rose to his feet. From a little distance away Kakashi chuckled at their antics.

"Ma-ma, Sakura-san. Save your energy 'til after the test, hm?"

Naruto sighed, was this how it would be from now on? He surely hoped not. What was with the sheep though? If memory served him right the sheep was never there… no matter. He returned his attention to Kakashi who presented them with two bells.

"Your test is to get these bells from me. The ones without a bell when the clock hits noon will be sent back to the academy, understand?" Kakashi outlined the test.

Naruto and his team looked on with a mix of horror and curiosity.

"Then why are there only two bells when there are three of us?" Sakura observed.

"Well… it is simply so you better have a bell or you will be sent back… also as punishment for not retrieving a bell will be forced to watch the others eat lunch."

His students only gaped at him as he went to set the clock to ring at twelve o' clock sharp.

"You got three hours. Come at me with the intention to kill, begin!"

At the words Sasuke promptly turned tail and rand for the forest line and disappeared into the foliage. Sakura was only a step after. That left Naruto alone in front of Kakashi.

'Aw, come on!' Naruto complained in his mind, was he the only one that planned to actually fight him!?

Kakashi stared at the Orange clad boy in front of him slightly curious what he had planned, it was foolish, of course, to try and face him directly but that did not deter Kakashi in the least. This was actually the fun part of this test, to actually beat the crap out of his prospective students and see what they got.

Naruto slipped into a ready fighting stance, he did not plan on giving up without a fight. He was going to utilize his new skills and put them to good use. One of those bells was his, and if he could get the other too he would lovingly give it to Sakura… aaaah… maybe just maybe she would look at him like her hero.

"Never take your eye of your opponent."

"Huh!?" Naruto went back to reality.

Kakashi had in the short time covered the ten meter's that separated them and stood towering over him. He threw a fist into the boy's stomach and appreciated the soft give it had before his fist erupted in pain. Looking down he saw a puff of smoke revealing a large rock instead of the boy he thought he had hit.

'What the-' he caught a flash of orange in his left peripheral view and in a flash of movement he caught the kunai wielding hand of Naruto's. Who also collapsed into smoke, '-Hell!'

He ducked low into a leg-sweep that caught the real Naruto this time as he was mare centimetres away from taking the bells. Kakashi was stunned at the text-book styled assault as he rubbed his damaged hand; he had probably cracked a knuckle or two on that rock… How did the boy manage to successfully Kawarimi with something so small?

Naruto struggled to breathe as he had landed flat on his back; his lungs did not want to cooperate at all.

"Better luck next time." Kakashi taunted the stunned boy as he extracted his 'Icha Icha' book from his pouch and walked away.

Sasuke was impressed at Naruto's attempt; it actually looked like he had succeeded at first but their jounin seemed to live up to the rank. "Tch, baka." He whispered under his breath and left to set up a trap of his own.

Sakura was similarly impressed by the feat but knew if Sasuke-kun had tried it he would have actually gotten the bells. She did not give Naruto a second glance when she too went deeper into the forest, wanting to find and team up with Sasuke-kun.

* * *

After several minutes Naruto managed to regain full breathing capacity and rolled up on all fours. 'Damn it!' he silently cursed, 'I almost had him! How did he know I was there?' he recalled everything that he had done. He had the moment he felt Kakashi's fist replaced himself with a rock a few steps away; he was curious how he managed to do it. He had felt his chakra mold to his will when he imagined making the hand-seals and in a disorienting flash of movements. At the time he disregarded the oddity of this and formed a clone to act as a distraction.

He had been so close! He could almost feel the bells touch when his legs suddenly got swept away and he landed painfully on his back. How could Kakashi have known he was there?

His stomach rumbled as it screamed for food, it was cranky after not receiving more than water for breakfast. Then he remembered Kakashi must have brought lunch with him. Naruto grinned, he was going to find it and eat it before anyone else. He chuckled evilly as he started searching the perimeter.

* * *

It did not take long for the silence to be pierced by an ear-splitting scream.

Naruto jumped in fright and spilled his newly acquired lunch all over the ground.

"Aw, come on! I was eating that…" he complained and drooped with a sigh. At least his stomach was not hungry anymore. He had also been still for far too long, it would not look good if Kakashi discovered him on the scene of crime and bolted in the general direction of the scream.

Sakura was in danger and he would come to her rescue, no matter if she liked it or not. 'One of these days she must come to realize I'm the better catch than Sasuke-teme, dattebayo!'

It was not hard to find the pink-haired girl as she stood out of the greenery like the sun on a clear-blue day. He got slightly worried as to what happened to her as she was pale… very pale and frothing from her mouth.

'What the hell happened to you?' Naruto wondered and crouched down beside her, slightly poking her in the side trying to rouse her.

After a few pokes that seemed to have no effect he started to try and shake her awake.

"Sakura, ey, Sakura-chan, wake up." After a few seconds she still did not wake up.

He sighed.

He could not leave her like this and he needed to find Sasuke, he wanted to know how well he had done. So he threw Sakura's limp body over his shoulder and started to march away in another completely random direction.

* * *

Sasuke was in a very hard predicament, a neck deep one could say… He grumbled in frustration. He could not mold any chakra in any way to loosen up the dirt around him. In fact the only limb he could move was his head. He was very inclined to shout for help but his pride could not take such a blow.

"Aaah hah ha!"

'Damn it.'

"Ne, Sasuke-teme... you stuck? Ha ha ha!"

Sasuke turned his head around and scolwed at the lame joke as he glimpsed a grinning Naruto walk into the clearing. He also noted Sakura was slung over his shoulder.

"Shut up Naruto and get me out of here."

"Not if you don't say the magic word." Naruto said in a singsong voice.

Sasuke scowl deepened but he gave up and sighed, "Please?"

"Hn, one moment." Naruto laid Sakura down before he started to dig the Uchiha out with a kunai.

As soon Naruto had dug free one arm he handed over the tool over to his grumpy teammate who proceeded to slowly dig himself out of the ground. The only response or thanks he got was a quiet 'hn' from the prideful Uchiha member.

"So… what we do now?" Naruto asked Sasuke as he watched him work.

"There is no we, moron."

"Bah, and you are doing so much better alone, huh?!"

"Tch, better than you."

"Says the idiot who got trapped!" Naruto was seriously starting to get pissed off at the asshole.

Naruto crossed his arms and turned his back on Sasuke-teme. If he did not want his help then so be it! He started to walk away, leaving Sakura with the half-undug Sasuke.

* * *

The alarm clock rung and Sakura and Sasuke disgruntledly returned to the starting point, finding Naruto sitting on one of the stumps hiding the memorial stone and the last lunchbox. He was not happy at all as they surely were going back to the academy.

"Tch, tch, tch. What should I do with you all?" Kakashi sighed. He walked out of the shadows of a tree near the kids.

Naruto glared into the distance, his head resting in his hands as he slouched. Sasuke was not happy either with the outcome and slumped defeated down against one of the three tree stumps. Sakura was on the verge of crying and she remained standing a bit away from the boys kicking the ground.

"Naruto, I am disappointed in you. You ate up my lunch." Kakashi said calmly, it somehow made it worse for Naruto.

"Well… I am disappointed in you all actually; none of you have what it takes to be a ninja. You should all just quit before I send you back."

All three of them looked down at the ground ashamed as Kakashi's words just hurt.

"Do any of you know what I wanted you to do?" he asked and received no response, "I wanted you to work together as a team."

"But how could we, you said only two of us could pass!" Sakura almost cried, the pain of failing and the hunger in her stomach was almost too much for her to bear.

"That is the whole point of this test," his assigned team looked up in surprise, " I see none of you truly understand the dangers of being a ninja, do you not understand why you were assigned a team. Sure individual strength is important but teamwork is more so." Kakashi sighed.

He went over to the memorial stone and stroked the smooth surface, contemplating his words.

"On this stone are some of the best men and women to ever serve Konoha… there among them my best friends." He looked back at the trio, "Do you know why?"

Naruto and Sakura shook their heads, Sasuke just met kakashi's one eyed stare. Kakashi sighed.

"They died because of me." he heard Sakura gasp behind him… he could only hope the kids understood his words, "They died because of the choices I made."

He grasped the last lunchbox and walked back towards the kids.

"I will give you one more chance after lunch." He handed Naruto the box. "And because it seems you're so hungry you get to eat," he eyed the two other genin, "and only you. I will be back when it's time to start."

Naruto stared shocked at the box in his hands and felt incredibly uncomfortable with it. He had already eaten his fill and by the hungry looks of his teammates he knew he was the only one who did not need it.

Sakura slumped down and hugged her knees, Sasuke just huffed and turned away. With shaking hands Naruto lifted the lid off and started to eat but for each bite he felt sick. After only three bits he slammed the lid shut and threw the box away.

"What are you doing Naruto?" Sakura exclaimed.

"I'm not hungry I don't need it." he jumped down from the log, "both of you can have it, I don't care."

He showed his hands in his pockets and started to walk away.

But as soon as Naruto was out of eyeshot he got stopped by a hand on his shoulder.

"Wait Naruto," Said Kakashi, "why did you leave?"

Naruto shrugged, "I did not want it."

"Why?" Kakashi fished.

Naruto looked away rubbing his head.

"I felt bad being the only one to eat."

Kakashi smiled and clapped him on the shoulder, "Come." He said and started to walk back towards the rest of his team.

Curious as to why Naruto followed.

* * *

"You pass."

"Huh!?" Sakura and Naruto exclaimed in unison.

"You pass."

"Yeah we heard but why?" Naruto asked in confusion.

Kakashi smiled and looked down at his students.

"It is quite simple actually… You are the first. Everyone else just did as I told them like the morons they were." Kakashi started, "… A ninja must see underneath the underneath. Those who break the rules and codes are trash. But know this, those who don't take care of their comrades… are lower than trash."

He chuckled a little at the dumbfounded looks his little students made.

"This concludes todays training," he made a thumbs up towards them, "Tomorrow begins team sevens duties, let's go!"

Naruto stood shocked in place as his team started to walk away towards Konoha. A little tear started to trickle down his cheek and he pumped the air in silent victory. He had finally made it, he was a ninja, a shinobi of Konoha. 'He he he, watch out old man, I'll take that hat from you soon.'

He started to jog to catch up with his team, grinning like an idiot. This day was but the start on an adventure he knew it.


	4. Chapter 4: Bored

**A/N: **Fashionable late as always, but here's another chapter for your viewing pleasure.

Please, R&amp;R

* * *

Chapter Four:

_Bored_

Naruto was in one word, 'bored'! The more days that passed the more he actually missed his tenant. The cold was a new unwanted feeling; he just did not feel as warm anymore and had to rely on clothing. A fact he was grudgingly happy for was his jumpsuit, it was surprisingly warm and held the wind easily at bay. Another thing was his stamina. He sure as hell could beat his teammates without problem in that department but… it did not return as fast. It took hours instead of minutes to recover his chakra and… well, he had experienced chakra exhaustion for the first time three weeks ago.

It was these kinds of things that made him wish for the damn fox back, it was simply… simpler to have the thing than not. Not to say he did not enjoy his new found abilities. Heck even Kakashi had admitted his control and handseals was perfect, so much that it completely outclassed Sakura. The girl had been credited to have the best chakra control of the class. '_Not anymore, wohoo!_'

The phrase 'Monkey see monkey do' had become part of his life now. He could just watch a ninja do something as normal as a jump and he somehow knew how. He felt how they used the chakra to enhance their moves and he found that he could easily replicate it. Sure it took him a few trail and errors to get them down pat. Now he could leap over the roof tops like a pro. It almost felt like flying, traversing that way. It was awesome.

Though he somehow still could not figure out how the Shunshin worked. He was able to replicate the effect but not the destination for some reason… he still had the bruises from last time he tried…

That was also something he missed. His healing factor was gone and it was a pain in the ass to adapt to it. He still found himself carelessly barrel into stuff, scraping his knees and cuts on his cheeks from passing vegetation when he jumped around. His injuries actually hurt now and they hurt for days if not weeks out before they fully disappeared. This fact was what dampened his vigorous trails with the shunshin.

Kakashi was still tight lipped of the technique and would not tell him anything about it, not even Jiji gave him any help.

Though worst of all was probably the missions, those infernal D-rank missions. Chores all of them were more or less chores… though he did like the extra pocket money he now enjoyed.

Also his new ninja status was a great improvement on the nearby shops as they now reluctantly let him in. The prices was still steep compared to the price tags but it did not matter much. He had money now enough to spend on stuff. It was actually a joy to bring home the first bags of food. It did not compare much against ramen but he had done as Kakashi had told him.

It was new interesting experience to eat home cooked rice with a few slices of pork, a bit bland but it filled him up enough.

Now though he was bored, bored beyond belief. It was a scheduled free day and he didn't know what to do. His fridge was stocked, no one had earned the effort of a prank and he felt training was not what his body needed that day.

He just couldn't come up with anything to do, even after dragging himself out to the training grounds for whatever reasons his feet wanted to do there.

He sighed deeply, his mind traveling back into distant memories. In fact it was of old friends, the only two real friends he had in his academy years. Bun-bun and Bushy-brow. He had only known them for a year before they graduated and left him behind. He did not know where they lived as they had only hanged out during and short amounts afterwards. He wondered why they disappeared, they graduated and then he never saw of them again.

Though he blamed himself for that. He never went out to find them after all… plus they were probably busy with what he was doing right now. They probably never had the time for him anymore.

He sighed again and stared up at the clouds. He did not know what was so interesting in them, he knew Shikamaru liked to watch them, a lazy arse he was but one of the few that did not avoid him. Though he must admit it made it far more interesting lying around trying to see shapes in the clouds.

He was brought out of his thoughts when he heard the distinct sound of kunai on wood. He was not too surprised by it as he was in the training grounds; someone must have turned up to practice their throwing. Though he was curious on whom it was.

He rose from his location and jumped up into the tree's. His timing near perfection as the wind masked the rustle of leaves his weight caused.

He carefully stalked through the wooden branches, quite proud of the result. It had taken years to hone that particular skill. The sound grew closer the further he moved until he came upon a small clearing. He made out two figures, training he guessed, but not with each other. The two did not look much older than he.

The first one he noticed stood slightly to the side, going through some form of kata as he made slow moving punches with the heel of his palms. He was dressed in a beige jacket and black shorts, '_Burrr!_' he could not help but think. At least the boy had sense to wrap his legs in cloth.

The other figure he guessed was a girl, he could not say for certain but he guessed she was one because of her get up. She wore a kind of sleeveless shirt he'd seen only girls wear… plus it was pink. As well as dark green pants adorned her hips. She was currently throwing kunai at targets set up all around the clearing. He actually felt nervous as he saw each kunai hit its mark, smack dab in the middle, on each and every target. She looked familiar, he could not see her face but something was… familiar about her.

"Who are you?"

Naruto jumped into the air with a small scream of surprise and promptly disappeared in a cloud of smoke. The boy he had observed let a small lift of his eyebrow crease his perfect mask of stoicism.

The smoke cleared to show one of the many human dolls used by his teammate for target practice in Naruto's stead. The boy had to admit it was as good a Kawarimi one could get. It was quick and it happened without thought. He concluded that the stranger must have been a genius… even though he'd dressed like a dork.

He casually observed the small bout of chaos that ensued down below.

* * *

Tenten was in the zone, she saw nothing but her targets, as she threw her kunai at them with deadly precision. She was on the way to try and beat her record, to throw twenty-five bull's-eyes with her stock of sharp throwing knives. She was so deep in her trance that she had not noticed her teammate's disappearance.

Each target was an enemy, each dangerous and needed to be taken out as fast as possible. When one of her targets went up in smoke she did not question why the inanimate target went up in smoke, nor did she question why it suddenly turned orange or started moving. No she got angry that she missed. The darn thing dodged her, turning her perfect run into ruin, and it was going to suffer for it.

She did not hear the panicked screams of her target as it ducked and weaved as it somehow avoided being hit by her perfectly thrown knives. She wasn't angry anymore, no, she was livid as she reached for her throwing-stars.

The offending thing saw her reach for more ammunition and turned screaming into the forest.

"Oh, no you don't!" she shouted after it and leapt into the foliage.

* * *

"Kami, save me!" Naruto wailed as he rounded another tree. In his short life, this was probably the most dangerous and most scary moment of it. It was not the first time someone had hunted him like this, but it sure as hell had not been with sharp deadly weapons. And for some reason they felt like they did not aim to maim but to kill.

It had been scary when the straight going and predictable kunai was after him, but shurikens? He were never going to doubt their usefulness again if he survived. They were nor predictable especially as they needed no line of sight.

They slammed into the wood in front of his face as he bent his head backwards and once again changed direction.

"Stand! Still! And! Let! Me! Hit! You!" the pink wraith screamed at him, each word punctuated by a thrown four pointed star that tried to tuck themselves into his calves.

"No!" he screamed back defiantly.

"Don't you talk back to me you sack of hay!"

"Anyone save me!"

"Enough of your running!" the wraith shouted back as something whistled passed his ear with a rustle.

Naruto saw the kunai lodge into the ground in front of him with a burning note attached to it.

'_Oh, damn._' was all he managed to think before the explosion blew him of his feet.

Disoriented and numb from the heat Naruto, like a turtle, tried to determine which way was up and which was down. Something landed harshly on his stomach, blowing the wind out of his lungs.

"Haha, got ya!" the pink wraith celebrated, "Now, who are you?" she said and brought one of her remaining knives to tilt his head straight so she could study it. "Wait a minute… whiskers?"

Naruto, after hearing his old pet name, snapped out of the fog to stare into nut-brown eyes. A blush growing when she brought her hands to rub his cheeks.

"It is you!" she grinned wide and put her hands on her hip, "What are you doing here? You graduated I see too, Lee and I knew you would."

Naruto blinked a few times in confusion but then his eyes were drawn to her hair.

"Bun-bun?" he tried, and sat up on his elbows.

"Aw, come on." she complained when she saw were his eye went, "Is that how you remember me?"

"Hey, you did the same!" reprimanded and got out right irritated when she stuck out her tongue at him.

Naruto sighed and laid down, his head was still spinning a little.

"Why'd you attack me?"

Tenten had the decency to look at away, a small blush working its way onto her cheeks.

"Um… he he, well… you surprised me, is all." she rubbed the back of her head sheepishly; the truth was a bit too embarrassing to tell.

She climbed off of Naruto's stomach and offered him a helping hand which he took. Glad to be of the ground his excitement took hold of him.

"'ey, Bun-bun what have you been up to, what cool missions have gone on, what about Bushy-brow?" he asked his rapid fire questions. Almost skipping from toe to toe.

She sighed and put her left hand on her hip, "Naruto, it's a miracle you became a ninja." She said as she shook her head.

"Aw, come on?" he whined.

"Alright, alright. Help me find my weapons and I will tell you." She said and started to walk down the way they came.

"Aw, man… were you always this bossy?" All the response Naruto got was an indignant humph.

Naruto sighed and hung his head in defeat and started to follow.


	5. Chapter 5: Genius

**A/N:** Wow... I'm impressed with how many visits this story I get for each chapter I add... a good sign I suppose.

Well you know the drill:

R&amp;R

* * *

**Chapter Five:**

_Genius_

"So you finally mastered the bunshin no jutsu, huh?" Tenten asked while they searched for her tools.

"Yep!" Naruto cheered and pumped his fist in the air, "You should have seen the face Iruka-sensei made when I did, he he!"

"Iruka-sensei, Is he your jōnin-sensei?" she asked over her shoulder as she pulled out a set of shurikens out of a very stubborn tree.

"Nope, Iruka-sensei was my class teacher after Kyōni-sensei." Naruto explained whilst carrying a shit eating grin, "He's a really cool guy!"

"Oh… then who is your jōnin-sensei?"

"Hatake Kakashi." Tenten body froze to a halt, long enough that Naruto picked up on it, "Something wrong Bun-bun-chan?"

"Do you mean Hatake the copy-nin?" she asked a bit reluctant, a small scowl creased her lips.

"Uhh… I dunno," he knitted his eyebrows together in thought, "he has spiky silver hair, oh, he also walks round with one eye covered."

Tenten sighed in defeat. Her plans to smooch of off Naruto's team for training were solidly crushed. If Guy ever got whiff of it he would insist on 'inter-team' training as an excuse to challenge his 'great rival'. Not that there were anything wrong with her team… she just couldn't compete with the other boys as their focus was solely on taijutsu and hers on Bukijutsu(weapon techniques), so there were not much she could do.

Naruto ignored her sudden bout of depression, chalking it up as a girl thing, continued his search for her wayward weapons. He was curious as he observed the weapons; they all were lodged solidly into the wood, or dirt, far deeper than he'd ever managed himself. He wanted to ask about that, plus it would provide ample distraction to bring her out of her low mood, he resolved.

"Say Bun-bun… how do you do this?" he asked gesturing to a shuriken he found, still stuck in the tree.

"Do what?" she looked at where Naruto was pointing a bit confused as she did not understand what he meant.

"The shuriken, how do you do it, throw it I mean?"

"Oh," she instantly brightened a bit, "practice and lots of it." she smiled.

"I practice too, but I can't even come close to this!" he exclaimed and threw his hands up in frustration.

Still unsure of what he meant walked up to inspect throwing star, "What do you mean?"

Naruto groaned irritated that he could not convey what he wanted to ask, whipped out a shuriken of his own and threw it at the tree next to them. It hit square on and stuck to it. "See!?" he shouted and waved his arms wildly in the direction of the weapon.

Curiously she walked up to inspect it and saw immediately what he was trying to say. Compared to her own shuriken, who sank all the way to the finger hole, Naruto's barely stuck deeper than the tip into the bark.

"Oh, I see what you mean now…" she said and pried the weapon off. She rolled the tool between her fingers before flicking it at another tree; it buried itself into the wood like her other thrown stars.

"Try it again." she said.

Naruto extracted another one from his leg holster and threw it. Like the first time it only stuck by the tip.

"Hmm… do you use any chakra when you throw?" she asked taking a glance at Naruto, who shook his head, "Try that."

"Okay." Naruto shrugged, wondering what help that would do. He chucked his third star, this time adding a bit of his energy into the bladed weapon before he threw it. It sailed through the air with a slight arch and lodged itself securely into the wood. Naruto stared surprised at the results. It was not as deep in as Bun-bun's but it sure as hell was a great improvement. He let out a small whoop of joy and rushed forth to inspect his new success.

"Hey, Bun-bun, look! It is much better than before!" he waved excitedly at her.

She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose at how stupid her friend acted. She had forgotten all about his hyperactive behaviour. The boy had appeared so much calmer and… mature just moments before. She let out another sigh, she really had hoped that particular headache inducing trait had disappeared over the year they'd been separated… but it seemed not.

"Come on Whiskers, I want to find my weapons before my sensei returns." she said to Naruto who was still absorbed in his glee. Her words brought him back from his self-absorption. He yanked the weapons out of the tree and ran after her, a small skip noticeable in his steps.

* * *

Naruto was still skipping when they returned to the clearing. The boy from before was wildly throwing open-palmed punches and kicks around him. Though to say he did it wildly would have been an understatement, each series of kicks and punches always flowed easily into another set. The strange feeling he was still getting used to, burned in his guts. There was something more to this boy's fighting style than he could see with his naked eye. Tenten seeing the concentration on his face directed at her teammate took the initiative and introduced him.

"Hey, Neji-san!" she shouted to get his attention. The boy stopped mid punch and turned towards them. A frown graced his features for a few seconds before adopting his usual mask of indifference, "Let me introduce, Naruto. Naruto, Neji." She gestured between the two boys respectively.

"Yo," Naruto greeted with a grin, "nice to meet ya."

"Likewise." Neji responded evenly. Something told Naruto that Neji did not feel the same. "I'm surprised you are still alive." he turned to Tenten, "It still seems you need to practice your aim, Tenten."

Tenten chuckled nervously at his attempt at a joke… it felt more like an insult though. It was unusual for him to try and be social, especially with strangers. He usually only were friendly with people if he knew they were competent enough… which was weird. He was always at Lee's throat trying to beat the spandex clad boy into submitting to his world view.

"He he, she almost got me too." Naruto put his hands behind his head and grinned stupidly.

"Almost? I missed you on purpose, Whiskers!"

"Whiskers?"

Tenten cheeks heated as she realized she was caught red handed with using Naruto's pet name. Neji glanced from Tenten to Naruto and could see how he earned that nickname.

"If you excuse me, I want to return to my training."

"Wait!" Neji barely managed to turn away when he felt a hand clamp down on his shoulder. He looked at the offending appendage and scowled at the contact. He looked up at the orange clad genin's face. He was only a step away from teaching the boy some manners. Seeing the scowl directed at him he flinched and removed his hand with a soft, "Sorry."

"I was just wondering about your fighting-style…" he hesitated a bit before continuing, "What were you doing with your hands, you did something more than simply punch-"

"It is none of your business." Neji said sharply and fixed his eyes on the boy who dared ask him to give the secret to the Jūkenpō.

"Hey, I just wanna know." Naruto defended himself but it did not seem to help much when Neji turned to fully face him. He felt nervous when those blank white eyes he had tried to stare holes in his body.

"I am will teach you to not ask for clan secrets you peasant." Neji spit out and fell into the familiar combat stance, iconic to his clan.

"Oh yeah? Bring it on!" Naruto responded to the challenge, angered by Neji's words. He fell into his own guard.

The instance Neji deemed Naruto ready he launched himself forward, left palm surging forth like a spear point. Naruto were caught off-guard by the sudden charge and kicked off the ground with his right leg, to let his body pivot on his left leg. He avoided contact with the palm strike and let it brush harmlessly against his sides.

He did not expect the side of his stomach to burn in excruciating pain and did not notice Neji's follow up strike to his left thigh.

Naruto cried out in pain as his leg collapsed from under him. Neji capitalised on this and hooked one of Naruto's legs and roughly yanked him down, face first into the ground.

"Humph, that will teach you, know your place." Neji spat and walked off, "I'm leaving." he said to no one in particular over his shoulder.

Tenten stood silent to the sides. She had chosen to remain silent as she knew from experience she could not have stopped the fight from happening. She also trusted her teammate to not leave any permanent damage on her friend… it did not stop her from cringing however when the deceptively dangerous punches graced Naruto.

After waiting for Neji to disappear down the one lonely trail out of the grounds she rushed to the orange heap that was Naruto.

"You all right?" she cringed the moment she said it, it was a stupid question. It would be no surprise to her if he was unable to form coherent words at the moment. She rolled the wheezing Naruto onto his stomach.

Naruto was biting his lips in a poor attempt to stop his whimpering as tears stained his cheeks and his nose bleed to no small amount. His hands where tightly clamed over his stomach and thigh, in a poor attempt to keep the pain from flooding the areas. She extracted some tissues from her pouch and handed them to him.

"Here take these." she said and took out a piece of paper. She scribbled a quick note and pinned it to a nearby tree for her teacher to find.

"We need to get you to the hospital." she said calmly, more in an attempt to calm herself than Naruto. She gripped his arm and forced him up to his feet.

Naruto hissed and swore as his injuries hurt. They felt like someone had put a branding iron to them, put the muscle in a shredder and mixed in some lemon-salt mix. Bun-bun slung his right arm over her shoulders and started to walk him towards the hospital. The tissue paper was still tightly pressed to his nose, almost completely red from his blood.

"I should have warned you…" Bun-bun said to him. He responded with intelligible grunt.

The walk was long and awkward for both of them, as it was made in silence.

* * *

"Haven't anyone told you it is stupid to piss off a Hyūga?" Naruto's assigned physician sighed as he was poking and pinching his injured side.

"Ouch, stop it!" Naruto yelped and swatted away the offending appendage, much to the doctor's amusement. "So… will I be fine?" He feared that the damn Blank-eyes had done more harm than what both Tenten and the nurse whom had taken him of her hands had told him.

"Well, you will make a full recovery." With an evil glint in his eyes he poked the boy where he was injured as he said, "your muscles are only bruised. That's what the jūken do when it hits."

"But he only graced me!" Naruto complained and swatted at the doctors hands.

"That's just it. Jūken uses a precise amount of chakra when they strike." the physician explained. "That's also why they use the heel of the palm and fingertips to attack."

"Why what?" Naruto tilted his head in confusion, "What so special about those places?"

The doctor sighed and mumbled something about 'kids these days'.

"That's where the tenketsu in the hands are."

'_Tenketsu…_' it sounded familiar… It was another one of those weird feelings and thoughts he got now and then after the truth-gate-thingy incident happened. Weren't tenketsu nodes… holes in the chakra circulation system, points were chakra could be released…

Naruto's eyes widened in realization, it all made sense now. The weird feeling he got when he watched Blank-eyes shadow spar. It was the release of chakra. It was the same feeling he got when he observed others manipulate chakra. He looked down at his thigh and stroke the tender flesh, needles of pain shot through where he touched. He had to learn it… he had to learn how to do that.

"Well young lad, lie down and I will see that you're back in action before the next weeks over."

"What a week!" Naruto snapped out of his thoughts with a look of shock.

"Of course, do you honestly believe you will be doing mission with a limp? I know you have good healing capabilities but I guarantee you will not be jumping around anytime soon. Now lay down so I can speed things up for you."

Grumbling Naruto lied down on the gangly hospital bed and let the medic-nin do his work.

* * *

Naruto was released limping late in the afternoon from the hospital, they had loaned him a small walking stick for him to use as his left leg did not fully support his weight. His injuries were a lot better now than before but it still made it uncomfortable to move about. He did get a small consolation prize from the oddly nice doctor in the form of a medical jutsu. It was nothing fancy as all it did was promoting blood flow and warmth; it also elevated pain a little too. The guy had told him that adding it into a massage was a real kicker with the girls… whatever that meant.

He limped his way home where he ate a cup of instant ramen, feeling a bit lazy to cook anything, watered the potted flowers he had on his windowsill before dropping into bed.

The day had been exhausting and even though he got injured by the arrogant-prick-number-two he felt it was worth it. He did after all meet Bun-bun again and learned about an awesome new move.

* * *

Naruto was yanked out of his dreams, of saving the world and being crowned the best hokage ever, by a rapid knocking on his door. He lay there a few seconds wondering _why_ the door was knocking.

"Wake up Naruto, I know you are in there!" came the muffled voice of Sakura as she proceeded to bang on his apartment floor. By the sound of it, she was trying to ram it in.

He groaned and rolled of the bed and limped his way to the front door, using the walls to steady himself.

"Wake up!" he heard her yell as he reached the door.

He opened it up, just a crack to peer out. He was still sleepy and wanted to return to the soft and warm folds of his bed.

"What?" he mumbled, taking in the angry scowl on her face and that her foot was tapping the ground in irritation.

"What do you mean what?" she snarled, "You never turned up for practice and Kakashi-sensei sent me to collect you, that's what! Now hurry up."

Naruto sighed; he was too tired for this.

"I can't Sakura-chan."

"Bullshit, now hurry up Baka, before you are anymore late." Sakura said clearly not in the mood to argue.

"Okay, okay… just give me a minute." he gave in and went to change. He might as well make sure to tell Kakashi-sensei, it would give him something to do today than just sit a do nothing in his apartment.

He grabbed the stick that he'd leaned against the wall beside the front door before opening the door fully.

"Finally you…" Sakura stopped mid-sentence when she took in Naruto's bruised face and how he clearly favoured his right leg, "What happened to you?" she gasped.

"He he, I… I miss timed a jump yesterday." he lied while rubbing the back of his neck nervously. He did like Sakura but he were no idiot, he knew how much the girl liked to gossip and he did not want word to spread that he got destroyed in a fight, especially to Sasuke-teme.

Her worried expression turned into a disapproving one.

"You need to be more careful, Baka… and you could have told someone that you weren't coming." she said, the anger gone which was a plus, and turned to go. Naruto heard her mumble 'it would have spared me the trouble' under her breath. The words did hurt a little, though he did not let it affect him much. He had heard much worse from others.

He limped after Sakura a few steps behind making good use of the cane he was given, she thankfully slowed her pace so he could keep up with her.

They did not speak but it was still nice to walk with someone, especially with Sakura.

When they finally arrived at the training ground, late enough to put Kakashi to shame, Naruto and his team might not have understood how much of an achievement that actually was. Sasuke stood to the side, leaning up against the tree he seemed to prefer to brood under, the scowl on his face were more pronounced than it usually was… Naruto felt a little guilty to be the cause of the upgrade.

Kakashi on the other hand sat perched on a wooden stump used for training, reading his oh so interesting porn. He glanced over the book at them with what they have come to understand to be his 'bored' look.

"Good for you to come my wayward little sheep." he joked and jumped of the stump, "Though I wonder…" he looked over Naruto's bruised form. "Why are you injured?"

"Ehm, I miss timed a jump yesterday, he he he." Naruto responded, yet again rubbing his neck sheepishly.

"Must have been a nasty fall… say, will he be a problem?" Kakashi said bluntly.

"What do you mean he!?" Naruto shouted in surprise. He had not believed Kakashi to figure it out.

"Oh? So it was a girl…"

"No!"

"So it was a guy then."

"Ye-, I mean, No!" Naruto's cheeks burned from embarrassment as he fixed his eyes on his feet.

Kakashi chuckled at how easily he had brought out the truth, another thing to add to the long list of things he needed to teach them.

"Will he be a problem?" Naruto shook his head, "Good, and if he does, come talk to me." Kakashi finished and clapped the boy on the shoulder, "You can go, come back when you're all healed up."

"H-hai." came the slightly hesitant answer and he walked away.

Naruto looked up at the sky, noting that the sun was still climbing, meaning it was still early in the day.

He sighed, he had been doing that a lot lately he noted. He had nothing to do, especially right now as he were not allowed to train at all as he needed to let his body heal… He could on the other hand try and do that chakra manipulation thingy that joken or whatever its name was needed. He nodded to himself and went home. He would show Blank-eyes you did not mess with one Uzumaki Naruto!

* * *

**A/N:** Now how did you like that? Got some fighting done, some more progression and stuff. Tell me what you liked or if not, what you disliked with this chapter.

-Peliik the three headed dragon.


	6. Chapter 6: Missions

**A/N:** Fashionable late as always. Enjoy.

* * *

**Chapter Six:**

_Missions_

After two days Naruto didn't need the walking stick anymore and he was glad to leave it at home when he returned to the team. His leg still ached a little but it was only a minor inconvenience as it did not stop him from doing missions. Thankfully the missions they got were easy and so he spent the week walking dogs, painting fences and running whatever other errand people paid high ryo for.

He found the task of manipulating his chakra child's play and quickly learned how to expel chakra through his hands. He did not on the other hand know if he did it right as he was reluctant to use it in his sparring matches with his team. He did not want to hurt them, even though he thought Sasuke deserved it, and he was afraid he would overdo it. A simple graze had hurt a lot and the full hit to his leg had been pure agony as it had felt like it'd been put through a shredder.

He did however include copied moves he remembered seeing Blank-eyes use in his shadow-spar into his own sets of attacks. He swore Sasuke would eat his words each time he insulted him for the 'pathetic' excuses for punches it led to. Sasuke wouldn't be laughing if he used the jūken on him.

His further investigations into the shunshin turned up blanks as Kakashi was as tight lipped as ever and the old man was busy doing hokage stuff. He knew it was something he was missing, something very important…

He spent the weekend looking for Tenten but he couldn't find her or any of her teammates. Half of which he did not even know who they were.

Disappointed Naruto went to bed.

The week trudged on without much happening. Though the missions where starting to grind on Naruto's nerves however. Nothing exciting happened at all. Though Sasuke did not show it Naruto could feel he was on the edge of his own tolerance as his mood went more sour than it usually were.

* * *

"_Have you located the target_?" Naruto heard the all too familiar bored tone of his sensei through his earpiece.

Naruto glanced to his left to see both Sakura and Sasuke hidden behind a few trees giving him the sign that they did see the target.

"Yup, right ahead." Naruto whispered through his earpiece.

"_Then on three. One, two… three!_"

As one, the three of them rushed at the bush which their elusive target had hid itself in.

In a final desperate attempt their target fled from its hiding place when it realized it had been found. The cat Tora, the bane of many new teams, had been missing for a week and had droved her owner mad with grief… not that Naruto could blame the cat for running away and felt a bit bad about doing so, but hey? He was getting paid so it evened out.

Sakura launched herself at Tora and managed to pin it down.

"Hah, got you!" she shouted in triumph. She was careful not to let the cats paws anywhere near her, there was enough rumours flying around about its claws to warrant caution.

"Got it." Sasuke said with a surprisingly large amount of pride. It was not too surprising as no other team had succeeded in capturing the cat in a whole week and they had done it in only a few hours. This proved at least that his team was better than the others.

"_Good job my little genin, let's meet up outside the tower._" Kakashi said. They could feel the eye-smile over the radio, "_I got a little surprise for you_."

With the cat firmly wrapped in a cloth to stop it from hurting them and escape they hurried, all of them eager to know what this 'surprise' would be.

* * *

"Good job!" the Sandaime exclaimed and smiled happily at the team who managed to catch the elusive Tora. He had started to fear no one was able to catch it, Madame Shijimi had been a right pain to deal with as her obsession with the cat had her crying a wreck. Once again he would have peace and calm for a while... until the darn pest managed to escape again… But that was for another time as he watched team seven revel in the simple praise.

Naruto were excitedly grinning, his hands behind his head. If one thing could be said about the whole mess with Misuki were Naruto's overall change. It was nice to know that something good came out of the whole incident.

The Haruno girl was acting cute in a poor attempt to hide her own glee.

Sasuke held a calm and collected attitude, nothing new about that, though he could not hide the small curve of his lips.

Kakashi, laidback as ever, stood to the side enjoying the small moment his students were experiencing.

"Good job." he repeated, "feel proud, you have done the village a great service today." He stole a glance over at Shijimi handed a large bundle of ryo to one of the mission clerks. She had paid S-rank pay for retrieving the feline safe and sound. That would cover one whole month's of expenses. He turned towards Kakashi.

"Will you take another mission today?"

Team seven turned their heads towards their sensei; wondering what he would say.

"Yes Hokage-sama." Kakashi said and let a smile show through his mask. "I would like to request a c-ranked one this time," Everyone in the room glanced at the kids who all were listening intently, "a little reward for a job well done."

"Really!?" Naruto exclaimed, letting his all too familiar persona out from behind his mask of 'coolness'.

"Yes Naruto." Kakashi responded, sighing. It was embarrassing he had the only genin team that was this… unprofessional. Kurenai at least could keep that Inuzuka boy in check during these moments.

"Yahoo!"

Kakashi could only sigh as Naruto made a little pirouette. Ignoring the boy he turned to the Hokage who, he noted, notably was amused by the boy's antics.

"Yes, I might have something that would suit your team perfectly." The Sarutobi clan elder said as he shifted some loose papers around. Finding what he were looking for he beckoned Kakashi closer and handed over the scroll marked clearly with a big 'D'. "What do you think?"

Kakashi looked inside and nodded.

"It will do nicely Hokage-sama."

"Good, good." Sarutobi said tilting his hat towards the young jonin. "Good luck." He said to team sevens backs as they were herded outside.

* * *

"Finally!" Naruto screamed to the sky has they left the Hokage tower, "Ow!"

Sakura gave a frustrated sigh as she smacked the orange clad boy over the head. She really had hoped Naruto had lost his… irritating side especially over the past few weeks they had been a team. 'Not everyone can change it seems.' She thought defeated.

Naruto for his part forgot about it in only a few seconds and rounded on Kakashi.

"Hey, hey! What's the mission?" Naruto were greedily rubbing his hands together as he demanded and begged at the same time.

"Oh, nothing special," he said, "We will be escorting a bridge builder to Wave country."

That took the air out of Naruto a little. He had probably hoped on something more exciting and special, Kakashi reasoned.

"Meet me at the gates nine in the morning tomorrow." He ordered his little team and turned to leave but he stopped rubbing his chin. "Pack supplies for at least two weeks." With that said he disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Naruto grumbled, he still had trouble figure that technique out. He felt he was close, he could feel his fingertips lie close to the answer but yet to far away to grasp.

Team seven split and went home their separate ways to prepare for tomorrow.

* * *

"Bag? Check. Miso flavoured ramen? Check. Spare clothes? Check. Shrimp flavoured ramen? Check. Spare ninja-tools? Check. Beef flavoured ramen? Check. Gama-chan? Check and that's all… wait…" Naruto checked his list again, "Where's the Konoha special edition ramen!?"

Naruto quickly glanced at the clock. Twenty-to-nine. Where did he put them!? He would barely make it to the gate in time as it was.

"Screw it I'm not leaving without my ramen!" He shouted, probably waking the rest of the apartment building.

The wall banged dully and a soft but clearly angry voice was carried through "Shut up damned kid!"

Naruto quickly shut up and started searching through his apartment; he had to hurry if he was going to be there before they left without him. He got lucky however as he found the box of ramen labelled with a big konoha leaf. He quickly stuffed as many he could into the already overfilled bag. There was no time to repack it so he had to leave some behind; a fact he did not like at all.

With the pack securely on his shoulders he glanced at the clock again, eight to nine…

The door almost slammed of its hinges as he left, only stopping long enough to lock it, and rushed towards the gate.

* * *

"Damn it Naruto, you're late!" Sakura shouted at him as he arrived panting and skidded to a halt.

"S-sorry Sakura-chan." He said grinning and rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. He looked around trying to spot their sensei, who per usual was not present. He clicked his tongue in annoyance. Why had he thought that Kakashi would for once be early instead of infuriatingly late?

He could only sigh and plopped down beside Sasuke, sharing the shadow. Sakura leaned up against the same wall the boys had chosen as their backrest.

Thankfully it did not take long before Kakashi arrived, early for his standard. Beside him walked a plump little man, not much taller than Naruto himself. The man wore fine robes, with two thick shoulder bags filled with what looked like scrolls, big ones at that as many stuck out through the gaps in them.

"Ah, there you are." Kakashi greeted with an off-hand wave, "Team, meet Hashi Kenchi, our client."

"Good morning Hashi-san." Sakura greeted with a bright smile, completely ignoring her impulse to scream at her late sensei. First impressions were very important after all.

"Yoh, old-man." Naruto grinned, mimicking Kakashi's casualness.

Naruto never saw the balled fist that bounced painfully of his head; "Ow!

"Mou, Sakura-chaaan, why you hit me?" Naruto whined as he rubbed the new bump on his head.

"Show some respect to our client, Naruto!" Sakura admonished.

"Quite the handful aren't they, Kakashi-san, eh?" Hashi chuckled at the kids antics.

"Hmm? Nah, they are not too bad after you get used to them." Kakashi responded with a fond smile, "Come on now little genin, it is a long way to Wave!" he called to his team.

They quickly fell in line as they left Konoha through the gate.

* * *

Naruto was at first excited by all the new sights; he had never really been outside the village before but after eight hours of walking the novelty of it all had been washed away. The only bright point was lunch and the now upcoming dinner as the grownups had decided it was time to settle down for the evening.

They set up camp and dinner, as pleasurably as it was, ended far too quickly. He would have taken another cup of ramen if he did not know he had to ration them carefully. He could already imagine the horror of going without the salty taste for an extended period of time… it sent shivers down his spine.

"Alright team." Kakashi suddenly said over the faint glow of the small cooking fire they had set up. Naruto and his teammates looked up, all hopeful for something to elevate their boredom. Kakashi smiled, "Time for some training!"

All three genin did a one-eighty as they collectively groaned in defeat. He so loved their devastated expressions, it made him nostalgic. Ever since becoming a teacher he had come to understand the joy his own sensei drew from tormenting him. He chuckled, taking care to not be too obvious in his enjoyment.

Kakashi led them to a set of sturdy and massive trees; there were no shortages of that kind of tree within the fire country.

"I want you guys to climb these trees." Kakashi said emphasising his words by slapping the closest trunk.

Naruto looked weirdly at his sensei. It was not the first time he questioned his sensei's sanity. Climbing trees was child's play. Heck, he could probably do it in his sleep!

"Are you serious!? Kakashi-sensei, I can do that in my sleep!" he shouted indignant.

Kakashi just smiled, earning a suspicious glare from his team, especially Naruto who narrowed his eyes.

"You are right Naruto. That's why you are going to climb without using your hands."

"What!?" both Naruto and Sakura shouted in shock while Sasuke only raised a curious eyebrow.

"But… sensei that's impossible!" Sakura continued, Naruto nodding along in agreement. She was on her way to continue trying to dissuade their teacher but a disturbingly sweet eye smile brought a stop to that. Then she thought of a better idea.

"If you are so sure it can be done, show us." She demanded.

The smile bled away from Kakashi's face as he inwardly sighed.

"Sure." he simply said and nonchalantly defied gravity as he walked up the side of the massive tree's trunk. He walked out, upside down, on a thick branch before he stopped and looked down at the stammering Sakura… or up, however one saw it.

"B-but h-how?" she gaped. The boys was similarly affected, one better than the other at hiding the fact.

Kakashi sighed again. It seemed no matter how many generations went by people still could not figure out the simple questions.

"Chakra manipulation." he simply said.

Naruto slowly closed his mouth and studied Kakashi more in-depth, or rather at his feet. Now that the shock ebbed off a little he noticed the strange… feeling he had started to become familiar with. He looked towards his own feet then back to Kakashi's. It was the same feeling he got from watching him preform that quick-movement-technique. The feeling pushed and pulled in his mind telling him how to do it. He looked down at his feet again then at one of the tree's Kakashi had pointed them to use. He could do it.

He set of running towards the leftmost tree. He barely took note that Kakashi had been in the middle of explaining what he wanted them to do, not that he needed an explanation… he hoped.

As he reached the tree he jumped, planting his feet firmly against it and let his momentum carry him a few steps, then he stopped.

He looked down at his feet, his heart beating a mile a minute. He had done it. He looked behind him seeing the ground. He let his eye wander around and settled at his teammates. They were both gaping at him in shock a fact that triggered a massive grin on his face. 'That'll show you Sasuke-teme!'

"Beat that Sasuke!"

Kakashi stared at Naruto, not quite in shock but he was more than surprised. By all intents and purposes he had expected Naruto to be the last one to manage this exercise on the first try... and to such a degree. But that did not make sense. All information on the boy said he had terrible chakra control… even the Sandaime had mentioned the boy's poor control. Something was not right. Kakashi shelved the thoughts for now. He would question the boy later when he could get him away from the others. So for now he would smile and act as if everything was normal.

"Good job, Naruto."

Naruto's grin widened at the praise and started a little victory dance, which lasted roughly as long as it took him to jump as he met the ground painfully hard.

Naruto could hear Hashi bark out a laughter from the warming ashes of the cooking fire. Naruto cursed feeling his cheeks burn in embarrassment.

* * *

Naruto was quickly bored again. The tree climbing exercise had been fun for a little while but it was hardly a challenge. He hardly had to concentrate at all to keep himself attached to the tree. He now knew what that weird white guy had done to him. Hell he had wished for it too; the fox In exchange for the ability to learn jutsu. It still did not explain his moments of clarity, when he somehow knew stuff he otherwise would not know.

"Wonder what Jiji will say…" he mumbled to himself.

"Did you say something, boy?" Hashi asked from beside him.

"N-nothing."

After he got bored of walking up and down the tree he had joined his teacher and their client by the coals of the cooking fire. There he enjoyed watching Sasuke take running starts up the same tree. The first time Sasuke had tried to climb he had blown himself on his arse, he chuckled quietly at the memory, and apparently Sasuke had used too much chakra Kakashi said. It was funny how mad Sasuke had been and his mood had not bettered much, if at all, since. It was fun to be the top dog for a while. Even Sakura had needed to have the exercise explained to her before she nailed it. She had on the other hand given up long before Naruto himself. Apparently she had low chakra supplies compared to himself and Sasuke.

"Ne, Naruto?"

"Yeah?" he looked to his left at Sakura who had her pulled her knees into an embrace.

"How did you know what to do?" she asked quietly as she watched Sasuke try and fail again to get higher up the tree.

"Dunno." he shrugged, "I just watched how Sensei did it."

"Oh." she scrunched up her brows, "Doesn't explain how you did it though…" she trailed off.

"Nope."

She sighed and stood up, brushing of her dress.

"I am going to bed." She said louder so everyone else could hear.

A round of 'good night's' greeted her and she quietly slipped into their tent.

Naruto stayed up a little longer before he too slipped into the tent and into his sleeping bag. Sleep found him quickly.


	7. Chapter 7: Cold Blooded

**A/N:** I'm not happy with this chapter but at least now I can go ahead with easier parts.

Also anyone that might be interested in proof-reading or help edit my fics can PM me, gods know I need it...

* * *

**Chapter Seven:**

_Cold Blooded_

Naruto could say many things about his first C-ranked mission but fun was not one of them. They had safely and without incident arrived on Wave country on day nine. It was a large island sitting just on the border between being seen and not, only a small dark line on the horizon told him of its existence. It was there they also saw the bridge; it was huge and stretched far out into the sea towards them. They had boarded a small boat that took them over the huge stretch of water, the small engine chugging along. Naruto had to admit it had been fascinating traveling by boat, he could have lived without the rocking the waves caused though.

Finally on land again Naruto learned what all the scrolls Hashi had carried around was for. They were sealing scrolls, all containing lots of building materials he and his co-workers needed to finish building the bridge. It was also a bit disappointing that the reason Hashi had needed an escort was mostly so he could unseal the scrolls.

Hashi had been quick to reassure him that it had not the whole reason, when he noticed Naruto's downed mood. He had mentioned something about bandits that had worked for someone named Gatō. Naruto had half listened about how Gatō had tried to strangle the islands economy, he did not even pretend to understand what Hashi was saying, but for some reason some of his hired thugs had turned on him and killed him, shattering the shipping company. Most of the Bandits had fled to the mainland and only a few vagabonds remained on the island. Hashi wanted some ninja to protect them just in case some of these vagabonds would attack the bridge for some reason Naruto could not imagine.

The village the bridge was being built at was, in few words, happy. At least it appeared so to Naruto. People were laughing and chattering affably with each other.

They were staying at and old and weathered house, abandoned by the previous occupants a while ago the Old-man told them. It was a nice little abode out near the water, only a few minutes' walk from the bridge. It had a small wooden dock out in front and had a nice view over the sea, the mainland was easily seen from there.

The next day's morning continued the training regimen of tree-walking but Naruto got waved of off-handed by Kakashi and told to keep watch over the bridge.

That was how he now was standing horizontally of one of the cranes arms currently lifting a heavy piece of metal and concrete. It was currently being lifted into position over four pylons that the bridge-builder crew had worked all morning setting into the sea floor.

No one cared to notice Naruto's odd position; they had all grown used to his quirky attempts to stay entertained over the two days he had spent guarding them and the bridge. It was mostly boring to watch the crew work, even if it had been interesting to see how a bridge came to be. Naruto had taken note that metal was slightly harder to stick too, especially if it was moving on its own accord, which was why he spent most of the time playing gecko. At times he had also helped carrying stuff and other odd jobs. It was not fun per se but it helped keep the clock ticking to lunchtime.

The lunch whistle blew and he set off running towards his team's temporary home to fetch two of his 'Konoha special' ramen cups.

On the way back he noticed something odd. The villagers seemed to stop and bow towards a girl, a very pretty girl if Naruto had to say so himself, when she passed by. She returned every bow with a nod and a smile that could have melted even the strongest of hearts.

He quickly took note of her black straight hair and modest but not any less beautiful kimono and saved the information for later. The weird reverence these villagers showed her was intriguing and he had to know more. In fact he decided to see if he could find her after he was done at the bridge.

Sakura joined him on the bridge later after lunch, which made it easier to pass the time for Naruto now that he had someone to talk to.

* * *

"Where is she?" Naruto mumbled as he stalked the rooftops for this mystery girl. He had seen neither hide nor hair of her in the entire village. Of course she could live on another part of the village, which was a bit sad. He looked out over the tree tops to see the sun start to set on the horizon.

'_I better return or Sakura will screech my ears out.'_ He thought to himself and made his way back to the house.

He did in fact get an earful for missing dinner from Sakura.

* * *

The next day found Naruto shirking his duties by jumping around in the forest around the village. Nothing had happened or seemed suspicious at all for three entire days so he reasoned nothing would happen today either and instead started searching the neighbouring lands for this elusive girl he had spotted the day before.

To his disappointment he found no trace of anyone even remotely close to the sizable village. Which led him to stop searching and instead to try and hone his budding new fighting style, untested of course, he knew how devastating this 'jūken' style was on personal level and it was hard finding someone that would willingly let him test it on.

With each strike he could feel the bursts of chakra that he released as he fought imaginary foes.

A punch to the left broke the nose of one. He warded of two other punches before sweeping the legs out of under another one.

He applied a series of jūken-style punches in quick succession on a third opponent. It was easy to imagine the pained expression on the poor imaginary ninja.

He paused, his right hand extended in a final palm strike to a non-existing jaw, his heart racing after the series of exploding punches. He felt confident that he would give anyone a hard time if they ever would challenge him to a fight, whoever that might be.

He went another few rounds against his imagination, trying out whatever new ways he could imagine to beat it to the ground.

After close to an hour of this he plopped down on the ground to rest. He wished he could train with someone, heck Sasuke would do if the bastard wasn't occupied trying to learn how to climb trees. The picture of Sasuke failing over and over again brought a small smile to his lips. After almost seven years of being the class-clown and carrying the moniker 'dead-last' for at least three of those years it was nice to finally be undisputedly better at something.

He couldn't wait until he could show how much better he had become since graduating.

He laid there in the clearing for a little while before he rose with a sigh. It was time to get a move on, Sakura probably would chew of his ear for being late… he looked up at the sky, scratch that, for not showing up. Oddly enough he had gone through the entire day without even noticing.

"Weird…" he muttered and started walking. It was only soon after that he discovered he was lost…

* * *

"Where the hell am I?" Naruto said to himself as he gawked at the gigantic tree house in front of him. It was larger than any building in konoha he'd ever seen. Catwalks protruded from it and thick wires secured it in the equally large tree's the building had been built around. A spiralling walkway lead up into its cone shaped body.

He stared in awe as he tried to figure out how and why this building existed out here, in nowhere land.

It was easy to say that Naruto threw caution to the wind and sprinted towards the weird building. He just had to explore this anomaly!

* * *

"What is this place?" Naruto did not know why he was whispering to himself but he was starting to feel and oppressive presence from the place.

He had seen neither hide nor hair of anyone; the place looked practically abandoned as he wandered the dark halls. The rooms were empty of all signs of life… except that most looked like a storm had gone through them. Furniture was scattered across the rooms, shattered ceramics littered the floor in what he could only conclude was a kitchen or mess hall. Something that creeped him out however was the blood. In places he could see splashes of blood, dried and brown and even flaking in places. But something that almost made him want to run and never look back was one large room. The door hung broken on its hinges cut in half horizontally… and much of the walls on either side of the door seemed to have suffered the same fate as splintered wood carved an ugly wound through it. The inside of the room was covered, no, painted in blood; dried and brown. What looked like hastily built barricades lay splintered, cut and otherwise completely destroyed. The room itself had not survived any better; the walls, floor and ceiling all was covered in small punctures, like someone had played dart on them but gone bat shit crazy and deep gauges similar to what seemed to have afflicted the door was everywhere.

His nerves was fraying as he felt as if he was watched as he snuck through the long and empty corridors.

Suddenly he stopped, he had heard something. Naruto could feel his heart beat hard and fast in his chest.

A few moments passed... and nothing. It must have been his imagination he reasoned.

He let out the breath he had been holding.

'_Time to leave_.' He turned to track is way out but froze at what he saw.

In front of him down the hall, someone was standing; looking at him. The person wore a faceless white mask decorated with odd markings and framed by two long locks of hair. The person was wearing a green haori held together by a brown sash.

Naruto only remained still long enough to make sure what he saw was real, which was no more than a second, before he sprinted away at full tilt.

He skidded around the first corner he came upon, slammed into and then pushed off the far wall to kill his forward momentum and change direction.

He rounded another corner but was brought to a halt and slipped when he saw the masked person step out of one of the doorways further down the new hallway. Only one look from the faceless person sent Naruto scrambling back to his feet. He barely made it out of sight when a dozen needles slammed into the wall behind him.

'_Crap, crap, crap_!' he chanted the curse in his mind as he fled, not caring in the least which way he turned.

He rounded another corner and slammed bodily into the masked person.

'_Kami save me!_' He barely let those words touch his mind as he instinctively lashed out with a punch, a punch that to his horror was caught in the stranger's hand. A knee slammed into his stomach which flung him flat onto his back and knocked the air out of his lungs.

The person stared at the hand that had caught Naruto's punch. The fingers twitched slightly but otherwise did not move. The person let his hand hang limp at his side. His other arm flung forward, sending another needle towards Naruto.

Naruto tried to avoid the needle but before he even had the chance to get away the needle sank painfully into his arm.

Naruto let out a small cry in pain but managed to roll onto his knees, coiling his muscles to once again try and get away from the person. He did not know who this person was but he was more than certain of what he was; a ninja. He held no doubt of how it was going to end but he would be damned if he was going to make it easy for the stranger.

He saw another needle being thrown at him and with a burst of chakra he grasped at anything lose around him and flung himself away…

* * *

Haku stared in surprise as the Konoha boy dissolved into a cloud of dust and… was that gravel?

He let a curse slip through his lips. This was bad, no, this was really bad. He had pegged the boy as worthless. Guess he paid the price of playing with his prey. Zabuza-sama was not going to be happy about this.

With a scowl grazing his hidden features he sank through the floor, now he had to inform Zabuza of his failure… he was not going to look forward to it.

* * *

Naruto stumbled into a room, a kitchen he noted, just as his legs gave away from under him. He was exhausted and his whole body hurt as if he had been burned. He felt dizzy as the floor felt all too unsteady for his liking.

For the first time in his life Naruto suffered chakra exhaustion and he was completely unprepared for its effects.

Gritting his teeth he rose to his feet, his muscles screaming in pain, as he forced himself to close the door. After he crawled into one of the cupboards under the kitchen's sink. He was tired but hopefully he was safe. He curled up into a ball by kami he felt cold.

His eyes closed in the darkness of the cupboard and in moments he fell asleep.


	8. Chapter 8: Trouble

**Chapter Seven:**

_Trouble_

It was hours later that Naruto woke up in the cupboard. There was a distinct chill permeating in the air and he could see a sliver of silver light through the cracks between the doors.

It only took him moments to remember where he was; he was trapped in an oversized treehouse. The fact that he still was in the cupboard meant he still hadn't been found yet.

He reached out to push the cupboard door open but a piercing pain stopped him almost as soon as he had begun. He looked down at his arm and to his horror saw an oversized needle sticking out of his right biceps. It took him only a second to remember that he had been hit by one.

Carefully he rolled onto his back, hard to do in the cramped space of the cupboard, and clenched his left hand around the protruding weapon in his arm. He took two deep breaths before steeling himself for the pain to come and pulled.

He bit his lips in a poor attempt to stop the painful whine he let through as he extracted the horrifyingly long weapon out of his arm. The needle clattered to the floor, two thirds of it stained red.

Naruto stared at the wound in morbid fascination, that needle had been stuck almost through his entire arm! How had he not noticed!?

Beating down his panic he exited his hidey-hole and out into the moonlit kitchen. He took a moment to stare out the window and into the night.

"Aw man, Sakura's going to kill me!" he lamented, still feeling completely drained and his whole body felt sluggish. He shook his head; he did not have the time to think about her right now.

He felt something wet and warm drip of his hand and he looked down. Blood… blood was dripping from his hand? He felt stupid in that moment; of course there would be blood! He took of his jacket; it sported a dark wet patch around the small hole in it and draped it over the back of the closest chair.

He sat down on it and dug out a small first-aid kit, no bigger than a small paperback book from his waist pouch.

He ignored the blood and the pain and dumped the content of the first-aid kit on the table.

He barely managed to catch a small plastic flask from rolling of the table. He read the small bottle's label: '_Ethanol_'? He remembered Iruka talking about first-aid and that he said something about it… but what was it used for again?

He twisted the one use cap off and took a whiff of the content. The smell stung in his nose and watered his eyes, it smelled a lot like what most adults drunk at those 'no kids allowed' places. This _Ethanol _was probably meant to be drunk, like cough medicine or something.

He put the cap back on as best he could and put it to the side, he was going to save that one for last.

He turned hurriedly towards the roll of bandages, band aids and wads of flat woven wool. He remembered some pictures from a small pamphlet Iruka had handed out those times he talked about the subject of first-aid; they depicted how you put the wads on the wound then spun the bandages tightly around it… why was a very good question, would not the bandage do on its own?

He mentally shrugged and rolled up the sleeve of his shirt, it was almost completely soaked in blood and even though it was dark in the room he could see the blue shirt being stained brown at places. Swallowing hard he glanced at the wound only to quickly place one of the wads on it, wincing slightly at the contact, and did his best to wrap the elastic cloth around his arm.

When he was done blood stained everything. His thighs and lower shirt was the most affected as he had used them to dry his hands, it had not stopped him from leaving small hand and finger prints all over the place, the bandage was freckled with small fingerprints and a small dot of red was spreading through it. The cupboard also had a set of prints as he had retrieved the needle to pin the bandage in place.

Judging it adequate he slung his jacket back on and grabbed the bottle.

He removed the loose cap again and took a deep breath.

"Here goes nothing." He whimpered, medicine had never tasted good and had always left a sour taste on his tongue and this already smelt worse than anything he had yet to taste.

He pinched his nose and emptied the bottle in one swell swig.

Immediately his mouth and tongue burned horribly and as it travelled down his throat he could feel it tighten and burn as the ethanol passed by. It settled in his stomach as it continued to burn and warm his stomach. The fumes of the ill tasting medicine entered his lungs and he involuntarily started to cough and sob.

Trying hard to stop coughing he wheezed and wiped his nose and eyes on the sleeve of his jacket.

'_Never again, that's a promise of a life time!_' he promised himself as he continued to cough.

It took him a minute to regain his breath from the stinging fumes.

Naruto looked out the window and into the night. Not for the first time he cursed his bloody luck. There was only one way out of this place and it was through that window. He opened it and climbed out, his feet stuck to the sloped side of the oversized treehouse without a problem. At least his chakra worked even if he felt like crap.

It took him only a minute to make his was down and under the treehouse and onto the spiralling ramp he had used to get in a few hours prior. His fear of stumbling upon the masked ninja diminished as he began running away. He threw a glance over his shoulder only to see the black silhouette of the masked ninja standing on the roof, outlined by the full moon.

With a burst of adrenaline he doubled his speed and disappeared into the dark forest.

It wasn't until late into the morning that he fell through the door of his teams home back at the bridge.


	9. Chapter 9: Exposition

**A/N:** Here you guys have another chapter in a unusually quick manner. I have finally got some help with this story so now I should be able to give you all a better quality story

* * *

**Chapter 9:  
**_Expo._

It was an exhausted and angry Sakura that was making her way back home from guard duty. The source of it all was predictably: Naruto. She had spent most of last night worrying about where the idiot had ran off to. And now she had spent another whole day: alone, bored out of her mind, and, not to mention, completely tired from her lack of sleep; all because of that damn idiot of a teammate of hers just decided to up and disappear, and worse she knew that was his damn plan, to make her feel this way, to make her worry, only to pop out later and laugh his ass off. She snorted; it was not hard to imagine the idiot to do something so childish.

It did not help her mood that his plan actually worked!

Stifling the thousandth yawn this afternoon, she took out her frustrations on the wooden boards towards her team's temporary home. Each step made the old boards croak and drum. She rounded the last corner fully intent to march right up to her bed and promptly go to sleep. This idea was however crushed when she found the door wide open.

Immediately her hand dove into her tool bag and drew a Kunai.

No one was supposed to have gone home yet… and none of her teammates, including Kakashi never left the door open behind them!

Pressed against the wall she snuck her way towards the opening. Slowly she leaned out, just far enough for her eye to see in. Spotting familiar orange she let the breath she had been holding out in one big sigh. Of course!

Quickly she pocketed her weapon, her face set into a scowl. She wheeled around the corner, her hands supported on her hip.

"Naruto, where have… you…" her anger washed away, as if doused with cold water, when she took in the sight before her. There were way too much red all over Naruto,

"N-Naruto, Come on, this isn't funny." She tried to laugh but all that came out was an uncertain chuckle. She clambered to the idea this was all still just some kind of prank, but something just wasn't right…

"Naruto?"

When he did not move she started to inch slowly inside, her eyes flitting everywhere, keeping an eye out for the trap she was fully expecting to spring at any moment. But for every step she took her hope slipped further and further away from her. The closer she got the more details she saw. Naruto's clothes was covered in red stains, as if he had played around with paint and forgotten to wash his hands.

Now standing just beyond arm's reach of him, her nose picked up something that dispelled any belief that this was any sort of morbid prank; she could smell the coppery tang of blood.

"Naruto!" she shouted and threw caution to the wind as she all but threw herself down at his side. With a heave she rolled him onto his back. The sight of his face brought her to stop. It was hard to find any spot that was not covered in blood; it looked like he had been wiping his face and clothed, a lot, as streaks of blood smeared across everything, and what little clean skin she could see was pale… far too pale to ever be healthy.

Her eyes wandered down towards his arm. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

'Calm down Sakura, calm down.' She repeated in her mind, stopping herself from panicking. It worked, partly.

She pressed a trembling hand onto the large red blood stain. Her face scrunching up reviled at the touch of the warm and wet cloth; she forced herself to look at her blood covered hand. She let out another shaky breath. Her mind had until that point not truly believed what she was seeing, but now she had no more excuses.

Racking her mind for anything she could remember from her first aid classes. 'Check pulse, then breath.'

She pressed her fore and middle fingers against Naruto's jugular, just under the jaw.

Yes, a pulse! She let out a baited breath but she made sure and compared Naruto's pulse with her own. The result worried her; Naruto's pulse was nothing compared to her own.

Just to make sure she checked that he breathed. He did. She rose to her feet shakily. She did not know what more to do. Naruto needed medical attention, that much she knew and she knew she did not have the knowledge so she would get someone she was sure would know. Kakashi.

"I will be right back Naruto, just wait a bit and I will get sensei." She whispered, not trusting her own voice not to crack. She wiped the sweat from her brow but flinched when she smeared the sticky drying blood from her hand onto it.

'Great, just great, can this day get any worse!'

* * *

Pakkun, Kakashi's go-to dog summon, landed in a swirl of leaves at his summoner's feet.

Kakashi brought his full attention to the little dog.

"That bad, huh?" Kakashi released an exasperated sigh.

Pakkun grunted his affirmative, "Tracked the pup to a hidden base in the woods on the far side of the island, there were too many different smells; no doubt it's inhabited and your student walked right into it. I tracked a trail of blood back here. He should be at the house right now."

"Good job Pakkun-san." Kakashi pushed away from the bridge rail. Pakkun popped into smoke, returning back home to the pack. 'What have you gotten yourself into now, Naruto?'

"Sensei!" came the alarming shout from Sakura running full tilt towards him, "Sensei, come quick, Naruto he-" Kakashi cut her off by rustling the hair on her head, smiling widely. It was nice seeing his team look out for each other. He enjoyed the disgruntled look she gave. He was going to enjoy what happened next that much more.

With a glint in his visible eye his empty hand flashed into a half tiger seal. Sakura could only yelp as suddenly she felt herself be yanked away.

The next second he found herself hanging from Kakashi's side, an arm hooked around her waist. Dizzy to no end. She barely took notice she was dropped to the ground in front of their home.

Kakashi disappeared inside leaving her to desperately try and regain her footing.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10:**

* * *

Naruto woke with a start, his body slick with sweat. At first he was confused. Where was he? Why did everything hurt so much? Then he vaguely remembered making it back home. It was safe to assume that he was… well safe.

He heard something rustle at his side and when he looked he met Sasuke's dark eyes as he stared annoyed at Naruto. Looking on his other side he saw the back of Sakura's pink head, compared to Sasuke she was bundled deep into her bedroll and was soundly asleep.

He could see the sky had just started to brighten as everything except the soft blue of the sky was still veiled in deep dark shadows of the night.

Sasuke made a noncommittal 'hn' and turned away from Naruto, trying to grab the few more minutes of sleep he could before it was back to mastering the tree-climbing technique. The fact that he was the only one in his team that still had trouble performing it was infuriating!

Naruto stared at Sasuke a few seconds before following his lead and within seconds he was back to sleep, his body, apparently, was too exhausted still.

* * *

Naruto did not wake up again until late into the morning. He could tell it was well within lunch hours, as the sun shone brightly through his and his teammates little bedroom window. It was however not the sun or his own biological clock that woke him as he could hear the front door close downstairs. He followed the footsteps as it made its way upstairs, the wooden old boards creak with each step.

He tensed when the person stopped outside his room. However the knock that followed put him somewhat at ease.

"Naruto, you got time to talk?" Kakashi said as he opened the door, just a crack.

Naruto could only see the masked man's half-lidded eye through the crack as Kakashi studied him.

The nod he gave the man was all Kakashi needed and he entered. He sat down in a squat at the foot of the boy's bed, slouching. Like that they sat staring at each other in silence. Kakashi's lone eye bore into Naruto's own. Time dragged awkwardly by making Naruto more uncomfortable for each second that passed.

Finally after what felt like minutes Kakashi broke the silence.

"So… Naruto, what happened?" Unprepared for the question Naruto only blinked at Kakashi who maintained the one eyed stare.

"He he heh," Naruto began with an uncertain chuckle, his undamaged arm went up to scratch the back of his neck, "nothing happened, Kakashi-sensei!"

Kakashi stared incredulously at the grinning boy. Kakashi was for the first time in many, many years speechless. Was the boy really so stupid? He internally sighed; maybe the C-class mission was too early after all. Naruto was proving not to be ready for it if he thought he could sweep this under the rug.

"Naruto," He sighed disappointed. The boy recoiled at his shift in tone, "do not make me regret passing you."

Maybe he had blinded himself, Naruto and his teammates were not like him, they had not been trained and expected to face danger like he was so early in life, there was no war anymore, after all. Parents did want their kids to have a childhood, after all, something that most who grew up during the war never had. He should have prepared them more for the dangers before he let them out of the village.

"Alright…" Naruto caved and he started to explain, telling Kakashi how his search for the raven haired girl had gotten him lost in the woods and then how he subsequently found the huge treehouse. How he got injured fighting the mask wearing ninja and later escaped.

Kakashi remained silent while he listened and when Naruto finished he rose from his squat.

"Stay in the house and rest, I am very disappointed in your lack of forethought, Naruto," Then he smiled before he continued, "Good job."

Naruto tilted his head in confusion at the odd compliment, why was he congratulated for failing?

Seeing Naruto's confused expression Kakashi's smile softened.

"Not many genin survives their first real fight; I am disappointed but still a good job."

With that said Kakashi left, leaving a still very confused, but happy, Naruto behind. Naruto wasn't really sure what Kakashi meant but, he knew a compliment when he heard one.

* * *

Haku found himself, again, in the streets of Wave's biggest village, clad in his favourite sleeveless and pink kimono, humming a quiet tune. It was a tiring task to walk through the village market, everyone around him recognized him, and beamed happy and grateful smiles his way; he forced himself to return the greetings.

He did not mind the friendly attention he received, but his instincts screamed at him about how wrong it was.

Zabuza's efforts in his training did not permit him being so easily picked out of a crowd.

Ever since Zabuza killed Gatō he and his master had been treated like heroes. It had its perks, they now had a safe haven on the island and the inhabitants were more than happy to hide them.

But today was not any old day. The break in just the other day had him and Zabuza high-strung. A Konoha genin had successfully invaded and escaped their hideout. Haku had to admit that it scared him a little, he had remembered explicitldly that he had hit the boy with a poisoned senbon needle, a powerful paralytic at that too, but he had not for the life of him found the paralyzed body of the genin in the forest or within the hideout.

What kind of village sent that kind of genin team on a simple C-ranked escort mission? No, there must have been something more too these ninja than it first appeared. Both he and Zabuza was sure they were here for the bounty, Zabuza's bounty. Otherwise, why would Hatake Kakashi, the Copycat, of all people have been sent here of all places if not to collect it? It was of course possible that it was just by pure coincidence but… Zabuza never believed in coincidences.

Which was why he was discreetly observing them from afar.

The pink girl was quietly sitting on the bridge rail, looking for the entire world bored out of her mind. Hatake Kakashi was curiously sitting alone at the mouth of the bridge, face buried in a little orange book. Everything seemed to be as it usually was, minus the orange boy. He knew there should have been a third genin too but he seemed strangely absent. It had him again worried as his mind jumped to the worst conclusions.

A few hours later and with his hands full of a basket of vegetables, something an old lady had thrust into his hands, he made his way back to the hideout.

* * *

Three days passed quickly though incredibly boring for Naruto. The first day had been over and done faster than he liked, his body had still been weak and he had been too tired to do much else than sleep and count wood fibres in the roof. Kakashi had explained it as common symptoms of chakra exhaustion.

The second he was able to move about, again he was surprised over the new and unfamiliar weaknesses he felt in his limbs, something he was slowly getting used too. He missed the constant warmth and energy he had enjoyed while he still carried a tailed beast inside of him. That white person had spoken of knowledge in exchange for it, but he did not feel smarter. Sure he had noticed how everything seemed to simply be… easier. He grasped jutsu concepts so fast that it felt like he had always known how. That weird feeling he always got when he watched and saw jutsu being preformed, everything seemed to simply… click into place.

He had received something from the white guy… but what…

By the third day he finally could draw on his chakra without it hurting, much. He was practically, and literarily, climbing the walls; his muscles still sore but entirely restless. It had felt like torture being cooped up in the small building.

But thankfully Kakashi had allowed him to return to the bridge the next day.

He couldn't say it was fun but simply being able to interact with others was making the hours tick by faster than at a snail's pace.

Kakashi had not pressed him any further on his… incident, but he felt his eyes track him wherever he went, it made him slightly nervous. It felt like Kakashi was just waiting for him to do something bad again.

The bridge was only going to take another week or so to finish, which was going to mark the day they finally would return to Konoha.

On the fifth day since the incident he spotted someone he had completely forgotten about: the girl.

He had been sitting on top the crane, minding his own business, watching the workers… work. The fact that he was sitting vertically on the side of the crane had long since lost its novelty, even the workers did not so much as bat an eye in his direction.

There he had sat when he spotted her, watching him! Seeing her made him remember why he had found himself in so much trouble. Feeling a bit abash at the attention she gave him he waved at her, grinning a winning smile.

He saw her startle from her spying with what he believed was a blush and quickly disappeared down the market.

His smile lost a bit of its shine at her reaction.

* * *

Kakashi's stroll came to a stop, his visible eye quirking upwards at the odd structure. It took tree houses to a whole new level. Seeing it he could not fault Naruto for feeling the urge to explore it, even he felt the subtle pull.

But he wasn't there to explore.

"Hatake Kakashi of the sharingan," a gruff voice spoke up from behind Kakashi, "come to take my head?"

Only a little bit startled, Kakashi turned to face the man.

"Momochi Zabuza, to be honest I did not expect to meet you," he droned, wondering absently how Naruto was still alive, "are you the reason why my little student got hurt?"

"No, if that is all, leave."

"Ah, no. You see, my student got hurt, badly too, and I want answers." Kakashi said in a happy voice and smiled sweetly at Zabuza, who returned the false cheer with a sigh.

"I don't want any trouble from Konoha, the kid trespassed, by some miracle he's still alive. Count your blessings and settle with that." Zabuza responded with finality.

"On one condition."

Zabuza was taken aback by the younger ninja, the pure gall! Worse was he did not know what to do. He could of course always kill him, but then he'd lose his hideout. It was quite comfortable having a safe haven. He did not know if he was willing to give that up…

"Go on…"

"I will overlook all this, if you teach a trick or two to my students!" Kakashi ended on a happy note.

"Wha?!" Zabuza was speechless. Was the man insane? Who was that stupid, to expose inexperienced genin to strangers, and to him of all?

"Thanks to what happened," Kakashi ignored the stunned look that Zabuza gave him," my students have not been able to focus on their training. See it as compensation for lost time.

"And you will leave us alone after this?"

"Won't even mention you."

"Deal."

* * *

**A/N: **Been far too long since I posted last... and I have sat on this chapter for over twelve months now, unhappy and unsure how I could get what I wanted out of it. But now I have decided enough is enough and will post this and simply have to live with it.


End file.
